Hello, again
by jammydoughnut
Summary: A past catches up with Jack that he doesn't like. Perhaps hiding things from yourself isn't a good idea but it might just help to bring your team together. If it seems a little long try think of it like a book and read a chapter a night Finally Complete.
1. Chapter 1

Ianto stood behind the desk in the dark entrance way they pretended was the tourist information office. Idly he flicked the pages of yesterdays Western Mail and read some good news story about an actor visiting a dogs home. Why he still bothered with the pretence of this office was beyond him, hadn't he proved he was better than this recently? The Senedd needed a reason for the over spend answered Jack, when he had asked and Ianto smiled, nodded and went upstairs again. Who wanted tourist information today anyway? A soggy Welsh April afternoon and if one more person asked why it was called the Norwegian Church, well he knew a nice piece of alien technology with their name on it.

Just then the door opened, in walked a youngish woman, on the edge of middle age perhaps, windswept – and not in a nice way – and ever so slightly down at heel. He could appreciate a fellow smart dresser, but she had let it slip, the light blue rain coat was dirty at the edges, the kitten heels dull and scuffed, the skirt hem starting to come undone. She closed the door and pulled a finger through her hair as if to smarten up.

"Nasty out" she said with a slight Geordie burr.

Ianto smiled and went back to his paper, another lost teenager in Splott.

For a few minutes she browsed through leaflets on tourist attractions South Wales, pits run for the amusement of tourists, Cardiff Castle, a folly to Victoriana. Presently she came to the desk,

"Do you have any information on the apartment blocks out back?"

Ianto looked up from the rugby report,

"You need the sales office on the main road, next to the Council offices I'm afraid." He went back to the rugby. She stepped nearer the counter.

"Any idea what time they shut?"

Ianto straightened up properly, what was he, Rightmove?

"I should imagine before 5:33" he said looking at his watch, "anything else I can help you with?" This little play could have ended three minutes ago and he was still here, he could smell the coffee, taste the pizza. She smiled, more grimaced and went to open the door.

"Actually yes, is their an animal shelter round here?"

Now that he could help with, he handed her the paper and stabbed at the article he had seen earlier,

"Try here love" he said, she gave him the same sad smile and left.

Ianto walked to the door and caught a snatch of the sound of a crowd going towards the Millennium Stadium, the rain pattered against the door as he pulled the blind, the woman stood looking out across the bay, a jumper if ever he had seen one. Not his problem, not now. He flicked the lock and went to the wall as it slid back to show a tiled staircase, espresso called.

Owen sat at his normal station, one screen showing a map of Penarth, another showing some computer game.

"Coffee anyone".

Neither of them really looked up, Tosh smiled, she wasn't really there she was making love to some algorithm again, but it would do. Owen gave him a look to kill, which was quite funny if you considered his situation and then spoke,

"I think you should turn right, the signal is coming from Dryden about half way." Owens eyes flicked back to the game and pushed a few buttons to kill the gun touting image on the other screen, really he needed to take this seriously, thought Ianto. Jacks voice crackled over the loud speaker

"What number?"

The map showed two small black dots speeding across the page, Owens eyes barely left the screen as he answered, the red dot placed over the house showed they had identified a non-human life form, probably blowfish. Easy to contain then, he went to make coffee.

The chase was still on when he came back, bored Ianto started checking the Plass through the CCTV, just looking he told himself, but really he needed to check that she wasn't swimming. It was half an hour since he told himself, she would be long gone, especially in this weather. He panned round and stopped, there she was, he sighed and found an angle that showed her face. It was a nasty evening out there, it was getting dark early and the wind whipped her hair, frizzy from the mild drizzle, round her face. Tosh walked up behind him cradling the steaming mug of coffee.

"Who's that?" she asked as Ianto tried to get a better angle.

"Dunno, some sad case who came in the shop earlier." He said as Tosh went back to her station like a mouse scuttling across the metal decking.

Suddenly Owen leapt into life, well there wasn't an allegory that described what Owen did anymore, thought Ianto wryly,

"Guys you've got to hear this." Said Owen toggling the speaker switch and suddenly Jacks voice filled the Hub.

"Boy but this guy is fast" he shouted, the squealing in tyres and the suppressed scream from Gwen told them that Jack was driving the SUV in his own style.

"Metallic Blue, probably a Merc, heading East towards the Red Dragon Centre" said Gwen trying her best to be professional while seeing her life flash before her eyes. Owens fingers flashed over the keyboard, he was adapting to having two of them strapped together permanently. Images flashed up, an overhead view and three smaller views from static CCTV cameras, Tosh was proud of this one of her programmes.

Two cars flashed by, edging steadily towards the Plass and the hub beneath, the Blowfish was ignoring every rule of the road but some how managed to miss the dregs of the evening rush hour traffic, until now.

"Whooh" shouted Owen as the Merc slide sideways and wrapped itself round a lamppost behind the Senedd. The Blowfish was out of the car and running,

"What are those things made of? How the hell did it survive a crash like that?" Said Owen watching as the SUV skidded behind it. Suddenly another form emerged from the broken Merc and started following the Blowfish in a slower fashion, more camera images showed it was another Blowfish – wearing a skirt and heels.

"Well take a look at that, Mr and Mrs Blowfish out for a drive." Said Owen swinging his feet up on the desk.

Ianto peered at the grainy image seeing Jack and Gwen jump out of the SUV, drawing their weapons and following the directions that Owen was shouting. He flicked his eyes back to the courting Blowfish and saw the male pull out his own weapon that had the look of a Tommy gun, followed by the female an alien, Bonnie and Clyde. These weapons weren't popguns either, these were the type of guns that armies would literally kill for.

"I'm going to the armoury," said Ianto moving away quickly, "I think they might need help up there."

The windswept woman sat on a bench facing out into Cardiff Bay, she took a small wooden box out of her oversized handbag and turned hand over hand. She wasn't prone to talking to herself so she kept her own thoughts as she got up and walked down the steps in front of the Pier Head building and to the boardwalk. There was no-one else around on a grimy day like this, which was why the thundering of steps on the wooden decking of the Plass stood out. No it wasn't thundering she thought as she turned to look, it was a slapping like fins from a diver. It could have been a fancy dress parade, two fish heads, a bloke in a long military coat and lagging behind a woman carrying a gun like something out of Cagney and Lacey. Well she thought must be the right place, she just hoped it was the right time.

She stepped back into the shadows of the bridge to watch the show, the man shouted and raised his weapon, surely he couldn't hope to hit anything with something that old. He stood in a military fashion pointing the gun at the Blowfish, smiling but with a menace that showed whatever he was saying wasn't nice. Something suddenly surfaced in her brain, she knew the gun, the stance, she looked, she knew the face, but that was impossible – but so was she. The Blowfish blew a raspberry, how typical of their kind then let off a volley with its gun, the laser burnt a whole in the decking but got no closer as the man in the coat took a shot, winging the creatures arm. The Blowfish would have taken another shot but the female started pulling hysterically at the male and they turned and ran towards her.

The chase began again, straight towards her. The Blowfish couple had about 30 metres head start and ignored her as they slapped past her down to the water, where she knew they would jump in and disappear. She looked back at the couple running after them, there were two more figures running behind carrying more substantial weapons. There was another noise too, behind her a young couple laughing oblivious of the scene in front of them. The running man had heard it too and he looked up as he ran past her looking at the couple and shouted at them to get out of the way. He hadn't seen her but she looked at his face and gasped, it was Gerald, a man who should have been dead at least 40 years ago and certainly shouldn't look that good. Suddenly he looked at her, even after all these years the eyes still had it, shock registered on his face and his gun dropped slightly.

The slapping had stopped she looked at the Blowfish couple who were stood with their back to the water and he was raising the weapon. It was a split second decision and the world seemed to go into slow motion, from the corner of her eye she saw the flash of red and she pushed forward, the bag falling from her arm. There were about ten meters between them, the rest of the team had come to a standstill just on the far side of the bridge weapons raised and somehow she registered the shock on their faces as she came into their line of vision. Sound came out of her mouth, she didn't know what the sound was but it sounded like a name to the rest of the Torchwood team.

The slow motion suddenly stopped and she saw the beam of the laser scything towards him and the last two steps took nothing. She barrelled into Jack pushing him to the floor, but she was a nano second too late if the pain in her shoulder was anything to go by and the bellowing noise coming from below her. She turned her head to see the Blowfish lower the weapon and point it at her again, the pain in her shoulder was starting to mist her vision and she couldn't tell who was screaming more. She kept wondering if this was what the end was supposed to be like, but even now it wouldn't be. Just more pain.

Ianto couldn't really take in what he had just seen, but it saved him the problem of explaining why plan A was to shoot Jack and hope the bullet travelled through him to Clyde before he either killed the whole team or destroyed the whole Plass, the clear up was going to take some doing as it was. However now he had a clear shot and he took it, blasting the Blowfish with a death wish into the waters of the Bay, to be swiftly followed into the water with a swan dive by it's girlfriend, the evil weapon cart wheeling upwards before landing of the edge of the pontoon, but none of the Torchwood Team even saw that as they ran towards their leader.

The pool of blood under the pair of tangled bodies was immense even to Owens medically trained eye, Jack, well he could get on with it as he normally did but there was another body to deal with here. Swiftly he knelt down and felt for a pulse, the woman was lying face down on top of Jack, who as normal was struggling but Ianto was there holding his head shouting at him to calm down, cute really thought Owen. The laser had hit her right shoulder and gone straight through, the movement as they had flown through the air had left a hole about four inches long that could be easily mistaken for a messy gunshot wound, Shouldn't have hit anything too vital but the blood loss was worrying, the pulse was there but he was shocked when her hand grabbed his arm.

She struggled to turn over

"Don't try and move my love" he said restraining her movements "I'm a doctor you're in safe hands now, I'll patch you up and get you to hospital."

She struggled more violently and rolled off Jack, screaming again as her shoulder fell against the cold hard stone. Jack scrabbled backwards but Ianto stopped him moving too far, the scorch marks on his shirtfront showed that the laser had gone straight through the woman but by now there would be little more than a fading mark on his skin, the only thing to mark the injury would be the "bear with a sore head" routine they were all subjected in the hours after Jack was injured.

"No hospital, please." She said, blowing bright red bubbles as she spoke. Her eyes showed abject terror at the thought. Owen pressed down on the wound with one hand and tapped his ear with the other,

"Tosh, call an ambulance will you, civilian casualty, gunshot, collapsed lung, loosing blood fast."

"No hospital, fine." She gasped at him as Owen took the syringe loaded with morphine he carried round with him "just in case" this happened, which it frequently did, and pushed it into the top of her arm.

Owen looked round, Jack was stood behind him

"You should be dead." She was gasping her eyes rolling back in her head fighting the blackness that was marching in.

"So should you," he said hunkering down and taking her hand, "I'll take better care this time"

"Tosh, cancel the ambulance, Owen time to prove you are the super doctor you always tell us you are, Ianto give me a hand here."

"Jack I can't, we aren't set up for this" said Owen checking the pulse again as her eyelids flickered for a second or two more and a smile passed her lips before she finally passed out, Owen quickly checked she was still breathing and was pleased to hear the fluttering breath even if it sounded painful.

Jack lifted the woman and grunted the new wound grating slightly as he took the weight, Ianto there as always, lifted her instead and ran towards the fountain, Owen darted towards the information office doorway, he should make it before them if he took the stairs two at a time. Gwen ran after him carrying the dropped handbag and the strange little box, another excuse for Rhys forming in her mind.


	2. Chapter 2

Tosh had stayed in the Hub, start the clean up early, couldn't run in heels anyway she told herself

Tosh had stayed in the Hub, start the clean up early, couldn't run in heels anyway she told herself. Really she was engrossed in her new programme and no one had asked her, so she sat listening over the loud speakers until she heard the screams and a gunshot. Quickly she ran to the CCTV footage but they were under the bridge and some yob had spray painted the camera last night so all she could see was blackness. She stabbed at the keyboard to get a view from elsewhere until suddenly Owens voice came into the hub asking for an ambulance. Immediately she rang through to the control room and was about to speak when Jack countermanded the last order and she had to stutter an apology to the confused controller.

What was going on up there? Toshiko loved order, numbers that did what you expected and most of the time so did Torchwood. You might not know exactly when the Rift would start throwing things at you but the computer could tell you when it was and where but add people who didn't know the system, like this "civilian" and everything when to hell in a handcart, oh god she was starting to sound like Owen too.

But not at the moment, Owen was shouting to clear the treatment room and the elevator was starting to function, she looked up to see Ianto carrying a body which she thought for a split second was Gwen but the hair wasn't right, thank God. Tosh clattered down a level to open up the small but well equipped medical room and could hear Owen not far behind her.

"You know what to do?" said Owen pulling a stainless steel trolley towards him and grabbing a tray covered in sterilised cloth and handfuls of medical equipment, throwing them on in his own order.

"What happened?" Asked Tosh flicking switches on the electrical medical equipment, the weekly training sessions that Jack made them all give each other were about to pay off.

"God knows, ask God, or Jack, same difference" he said quickly washing his hands and drying them as Ianto crashed through the door, Jack close behind.

Jack surveyed the scene, as Ianto laid the woman on the table, Tosh spun into action with the leads for the ECG and Owen started to lay bear the skin scorched outside. There was something missing though, Gwen, she barrelled through the door carrying the bag and stopped short when she saw the hive of activity before her.

"I'll do this out here" she said pointing at the bag and backed out swiftly. Dead bodies she could cope with, holding hands with the dieing but needles always turned her green. Jack followed her out,

"Find out who she is, why she was there, how she knew."

"And I'll mop the floor while I'm at it." Gwen always got sarky when she was stressed. She tipped the bag out on the table and started sorting it out with an investigators eye, looking for the purse that all women carried their life in, finding car keys, looking for missing things, no house keys, nothing really personal.

Back in the medical room it could have been any A&E on a Saturday night, but the staff were a little over dressed, dapper suits sprayed with bright red blood and sexy spike heels kicking the plastic of the sterile packets skittering across the room were not NHS style.

"Owen I have a problem" said Tosh stabbing at another monitor.

Owen looked up from where he was trying to find a vein in her hand.

"Slightly busy here" He said wiggling the hand to get a better position in the light

"Owen I don't think I am doing this right, those numbers look to low" she said pointing to the blood pressure monitor.

"Nope, the amount of the red stuff on the floor this is going to be touch and go." He looked pointedly at Jack who for once had the grace to look slightly sheepish. Owen grunted as he finally managed to get the needle in her hand, I am good, he thought and if he could just save one person from the darkness it would all be worth it.

"Ianto, O neg"

Owen moved round to the other side of the bed and looked at the exposed shoulder, which didn't look as bad as he thought after Ianto had cleaned it up. The shuddering breathing reminded him of the collapsed lung and he turned to Tosh for the chest tube kit, Tosh had been appalled at the lack of order in here and had rearranged everything into neat drawers and trays, Owen had then rearranged them back into some sort of medical order but he had to admit it had looked and functioned better.

Jack looked over the ordered scene; he was surplus to requirements – the goal of a good leader. He turned to go back up into the hub removing his coat and rubbing his shoulder, though he would never admit it he was feeling distinctly distressed by events tonight. Gwen was still hunting through the bag for anything about this woman that would help them. Finally, after what seemed like an hour to Gwen but was only a few minutes, she found another zipped pocket and a small black purse fell out. It wasn't the gold mine she wanted though, the zipped section contained a few coins and a fiver but they way she was dressed and the contents of her handbag, the expensive lipstick, suggested she should be worth more than this. The cardholder on the purse was even emptier, but it was worn where cards had been, but were no longer there. Gwen growled with frustration as she took out the only two things in there, a bill and a small dog-eared piece of card.

She opened out the paper, the carbon copy of a car rental agreement so scuffed and badly written that the name was barely legible. The form however had a pre-printed agreement number on it and Gwen hoped that Tosh would have a nice little programme to find out the details of the rent-a-car computer, failing that it would have to be a good old fashioned phone call. She turned her attention to the card and turned it over to the writing side, she quickly scanned it,

"Oh Shit", she said running to the door and looking across to where Ianto was stood.

"Owen you better see this"

"Busy" he said as the hiss of air told him that he was again successful in his efforts to save this unknown woman.

"No Owen she's got a card, it says she doesn't want any sort of blood transfusions."

"Too late" said Ianto with his typical level of understatement.

"What does she have a death wish?" he looked up at the wound on her shoulder, he could swear it was getting smaller, certainly wasn't bleeding as much and her lips had lost the deathly blue colour of a few minutes ago. He cast a professional eye over the lines and numbers showing her vital signs, they were improving too, he was going to pull this one off.

"Owen" Gwens voice was insistent, "It says this woman, a Sarah Jones, doesn't want any blood products and that looks like blood." She said stabbing the air at the bag of blood quickly draining into her arm.

"Just one, she'll never know, medical imperative in an emergency, probably save her life." That scar was starting to heal before his eyes, he turned round to pick up his hand held scanner, life was so different here from the NHS hours waiting for CT scans, portable x-rays broken and never mended; pity the technology couldn't be replicated on earth.

Gwens eyes bored into his back.

"It's nearly gone now, I won't replace it." The scanner showed that there was a hole in the scapular, but it was smaller than it should have been.

"Might not need to." He said scratching his head.

Gwen turned and went back to the Hub, give this Sarah a history, do some real investigation. She started stabbing numbers in her keyboard, she had really learnt the power of a computer from Tosh. Pity other people hadn't, like the person who had input this form at the depot at the airport, half the information was missing but it was a start, perhaps she could work it out from airline records. She sent the info she had to print and went to the printer.

The printer was working overtime spitting out pictures, she went back to her computer to cancel the proceeding job but the queue was massive. She tried the age-old computer fix of hitting the mouse against the desk and then rocking back in the chair.

"Problem?"

"How on earth do you do that?" said Gwen startled

"Years of practice, what have you found."

"Precisely, very little and some twonk has locked up the printer with their holiday photos." She picked a handful up and threw them onto the desk. Jack flicked idly at the printouts and something caught his eye, he looked deeper and called Gwen over. He started picking the papers and looking deeply at them, her interest piqued Gwen looked over his shoulder and immediately understood why he was looking. Picking up the photos he was throwing on the desk she started to lay them out on the desk, there were images from all different ages, different places but one unifying factor. Her face.

"Where have all these come from, it's like some fun photo parlour at Barry." Said Gwen "Could it be a family album through the last 100 years?"

Sorting further through she came across a sheaf of files, passport applications, drivers licences, military records, all with photographs clipped on the corner. All different dates through the last century but the amazing thing was the face in the photo always seemed the same. Jack was holding one particular photograph, a highly starched group of nurses in sparkling white aprons and white linen squares on their heads. Slightly incongruously the backdrop was a broken wall.

At that moment Tosh came back into the Hub,

"Owen says that our patient is stable, but don't ask me what that means." Still in the dark about what had happened above them she shuffled back to her workstation, planning to carry on with the clean up. She sat down quietly and moved the mouse to dissolve the screensaver and read two messages that came up over many flickering images.

"Are these your handy work?" Gwen asked handing Toshiko more of the pictures and a few of the information pages.

"Oh I forgot I started this, yes it's my new programme I thought I would test it out when Ianto saw our patient sitting in the rain, before all this happened of course. I tried it on Owen and you don't want to see the results." She said pushing her glasses back on her nose.

"But what does it all mean?" asked Gwen patiently, two years and she had about trained Tosh not to bamboozle her with techno babble to the point where she was supposed to be a mind reader.

"Oh yes." Said Tosh giving Gwen the 'mouse' look that she took on when she was embarrassed. "I've been working on this new algorithm for a few weeks now, it takes the facial characteristics of a subject, in this case I took the image off the feed of the CCTV, it matches 17 points on the face –I'm hoping to extend this to the whole body if it works, but then of course you would have to take into account the possibility of injury or disfigurement, but bone structure often stays the same" Jack was loosing patience he started twisting his finger in the air to wind it up.

"Oh um yes, well the computer then scans through all the government departments which I can hack into, which of course is most of them and passes back the matches." She finally finished and smiled as if this was all the explanation anyone ever needed.

"And this?" Jack had the group shot of the nurses gripped tightly in his hand, the unsmiling face at the end of the back row highlighted by the computer

"Well it's still at the testing stage, I didn't know what sort of returns I was going to get so I set it to search all the images on the internet."

"Well look these can't all be the same woman the pictures must span 150 years, look there's even a painting in here that must be eons old." Said Gwen trying to be the voice of reason again.

Tosh turned to the computer again, when she was stuck for an explanation return to what she knew best.

"Jack you should take a look at this."

"Uh" replied Jack, looking through grainy images from the beginning of photography.

"And this one Jack." Said Gwen formally handing him a photograph.

He took the paper and gasped, Gwen had never seen Captain Jack Harkness poleaxed but she had found a chink in his armour. The team knew Jack was different, they knew he had been around for a long time, had many tales he had never told but somehow none of that mattered, perhaps it was better not to know. Gwen could have sworn she saw tears in his eyes as he looked down at the image, a nurse attending a badly injured soldier in a field hospital, the solider was Jack, the nurse unmistakably her.

"You've met before then?" asked Gwen rubbing his shoulder unconsciously.

"She was special, she would have saved my life then if I'd needed it, I felt such a fraud at the time but I strung it out as long as I could."

"What happened?"

"I got a few days R&R in a small French town about 20 miles behind the front lines and she happened to come back to the field hospital based there. We had coffee, well burnt toast in water." He smiled his normal wry smile "We talked for hours, it wasn't particularly the done thing even though we were never alone. One lousy night was all we had and yet I have never felt so connected to another person." Jack sat down, Gwen had never seen him like this, she hunkered down in front of him like you would for a child who had lost his mummy. She stroked his knee, while Tosh shuffled awkwardly behind her.

"We arranged to meet the next night, but there was an explosion that destroyed the hospital, an ammunition truck hit an old shell and boom." He left the image to settle. "All the able bodied men ran to help but they thought I was injured so they stopped me, didn't need more casualties. From the 32 nurses asleep in the accommodation block they said none survived." He ran his fingers through his hair "I didn't have a picture but I remember everything about her, 48 hours and she changed my life." The air seemed to bristle with tension.

"But Jack it can't be her, she'd be well over a hundred by now and she looks about 30." Said Gwen consolingly

"I'm sorry to butt in," squeaked Tosh before clearing her throat, "But I think Jack needs to take a look at this."

"I think he has enough on his plate at the moment Tosh" snapped Gwen feeling positively matronly.

"No this has a bearing on this woman" she said more forcefully. They both turned to look at the screen she had turned towards them.

"My programme goes through government files for images, which of course includes Torchwood files, though I've never found anything in them before." She smiled in her normal nervous way. "But there's a problem, I don't have security clearance for these files."

Jack looked up, his momentary melancholy gone,

"Which files?"

Tosh stabbed away at the keyboard to find the required information and read the numbers back to Jack, he made her repeat them.

"J-1-0293 and J-1-1948, I think they're both from Torchwood One." She said her voice falling away, they tended not to talk about London after what happened.

Jack sprang into life, his face set with a grim look that Gwen knew too well and didn't like,'

"Jack" she said with a note of caution in her voice "Tell me what those numbers mean."

"You don't want to know." He said springing off the raised computer area and making towards the medical room, Gwen followed shouting his name.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Sorry this one took a while folks, it really didn't want to form! Hope you are enjoying it so far - is it what you expected?? A review is always greatly appreciated!**_

Jack slammed into the door of the medical room surprising and annoying Owen.

"May I remind you that the medical room is supposed to be a restful place and not a freak show." He snapped turning back to the unconscious form on the bed and carried on his tests, which he was repeating because the equipment was on the fritz, wasn't it?

"What is it?" Asked Jack pointing at the woman as if he had just scraped her off his shoe.

"I was just asking myself the same question." Said Owen scratching his head with the end of his pen. "Looks human, mainly the same physiology, minus a kidney and a massive spleen, but unless she is the Bionic Woman no one heals that fast." He took a breath, "apart from you that is."

Ianto looked up from the bed head where he was rearranging her hair after washing the mixed blood from her face, he was ultra sensitive when someone was having a go at Jack.

"Explain" ordered Jack, the length of his sentences correlated directly with the length of his temper. His own shoulder was still throbbing and it was giving him a headache.

"Well, less than two hours ago she had a hole the shoulder I could put my fist through and now it just looks like a rather bad bruise. In fact the only thing that mildly suggests that she was nearly blown to kingdom come with a laser weapon by a fish in a suit is the abnormally low blood pressure – which by the way would kill a normal person too." Owen glowered at Jack while Gwen hovered round outside, he did his job well but Jack still had to know better, would it kill him to say thank you Owen or well done Owen, another life saved, but no all he got was 'the look'.

"Are you going to tell us what is going on Jack?" Asked Gwen "Or are we playing our normal guessing game?"

"Yer well can you do that some where else please, write me a memo because I am going to be a little busy." Said Owen gesturing round the room.

Jack turned to leave and nearly knocked Gwen over, she was stood with her hands on her hips blocking his exit route.

"I know the four digit number is a staff file, Jack Harkness you tell us what is going on right now"

"Or what?" He said daring her to stand across his path for a second longer

"Or I am going home to my husband and I am taking the two weeks I am owed from last year and the three I haven't taken from this year and then decide if I want to come back."

Jack flashed the smile that fixed a thousand problems

"As if, you love it really."

"No Jack I don't anymore, I am tired of being treated like mushroom, tell me what those numbers mean right now or I walk"

He ran his fingers through his hair, Owen had stopped to look at them, even Ianto had crossed his arms in front of his chest while he stood looking at him.

"What's this ganging up on me?" The bravado was gone, the one thing Jack couldn't stand up to was the team in unison against him.

"Point number one, That" he said stabbing a finger at the bed, "That can not be human, it is at least 120 years old."

"Copper this is kettle, come in" said Owen.

Jack stepped back into the room, "Special circumstances Owen" he started realising he had backed himself into a corner he did not want to be in, God but this woman had screwed up his day.

"That information is classified and that is the way it is staying." Said Jack with a finality he hoped he wouldn't regret. "Bad things hide under those files and you do not want to know, however much you think you do."

"Ianto, what would be in files starting J-1?" asked Gwen in a very stern voice.

Jack turned to look at Ianto, nearly turning his back on Gwen subtlety trying to change the balance of power, he would have had more luck taking an advert on a billboard. Gwen still glared at Ianto over his shoulder.

"Well the one means they were Torchwood London, but J section are all locked." He avoided everyones gaze because he knew exactly what that section had done, it was very secretive, all you heard was whispers and you didn't want to hear any more. J section was one of the reasons Jack had severed links with One, he still muttered over it occasionally, though less since he had come back from his long "holiday". Ianto licked his lips and hoped that his white lie would suffice, but Gwen could be like a bloodhound when she had the scent and she wouldn't give up, how Rhys survived under that sort of stare he didn't know.

"And the rest" she spat at Ianto

He swallowed and looked at Jack who didn't give any indication of what he should do, so he was dammed if he did by Jack and dammed if he didn't by the rest of the team. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes,

"J division was the original set up, based in Scotland, it was named after the head of the department, a Mr Jameson." He stopped to look at Jack who was stoney faced and decided against the history lesson. "Anyway the rumour is they were the alien hunters, public enemy number one. It wasn't until later that they turned their attention to alien technology." He sniffed which he always did when he was uncomfortable.

"So she's an alien hunter, that's what we do Jack." Gwen spat at him

"You don't understand Gwen, leave it." Jack ordered.

Gwen was exhausted, this was four days on the trot they had worked into the middle of the night chasing Weevils round most of Cardiff. Rhys was a patient man, he had to be these days, but last night even he had snapped at her and thrown an incinerated meal in front of her. She could still taste the burnt cheese from the edge of the lasagne that he had made three hours before, she had smiled through it but the silent treatment broke her heart. She shook her head and threw her arms up in mock horror and turned to leave. Jack was in two minds, should he let her carry out her threat and leave or pull rank and get her to stay in the hub. He could normally make these decisions easily but today, that thing, was playing with his mind.

Jack shoved his hands in his pockets, Owen started prodding and poking again, Ianto shuffled back to the drawers of medical equipment and started to make a list of the stuff that had been used so he didn't have to look at Jack. He was trying to think of some witty bon mote, the sort that diffused any situation but there just wasn't anything to say because he knew it would be a lie. How could you explain what was in those files, locking them was one of the first things he did when he had taken over. He sighed, he was defeated, he had lost this battle and was about to call a truce if only he could think of what to say.

It was one of those moments when seconds turned into hours and in the many, many years to come Jack would remember it with total clarity. As Gwen stalked across the dark vestibule towards the stairs Jack suddenly thought of the right retort but he didn't have the time. There was a slight movement from the bed, feet and legs restlessly moving to explore surroundings before the rest of the body responded. Instinctively Jack reacted and drew his weapon rounding on the woman. Oblivious to the danger she started thrashing her head on the pillow and Owen went to calm her down.

"Jack what are you doing?" Questioned Ianto quietly.

Jack clicked the safety off and caught the attention of everyone in the room

"J section were torturers and murders, they stopped at nothing to get information out of anyone who came through the rift and she must have been one of them."

The emotion was raw on his face, he was loosing control just thinking of the things he had heard them do. He had only escaped their clutches because the then head of Torchwood Cardiff had hidden him in the vault for a month and argued that as a human, even a 51st century one, he wasn't in the public enemy category. When he had finally taken charge, after clearing up the carnage, he went back to those cells in the vaults and found the creatures left behind. Jack had wept as he had sorted out those who were safe to be in a human world and made life for those who were weren't at least tolerable. Some of the creatures had been there too long and when set free took the first opportunity to free themselves of the pain they were in, Jack had taken it personally and had gone through a deeply depressed stage and not for the first time he wished he could join them.

"How many did you murder?" demanded Jack

A stunned Owen couldn't believe what he was hearing, it wasn't the first time he had felt Jack was on the edge but he wondered if he hadn't gone completely off the rails.

"Can someone get him out of here." Gasped Owen, "NOW". He had been trying to shield the woman from Jack, waking up to stare down the barrel of a gun was not what the doctor ordered, he couldn't do it much longer he needed to move to pick up a syringe that was just out of reach. Ianto moved towards Jack but the older man shook his head.

"Quit with the histrionics, the Bitch is as much of a murderer as anyone of those weevils in the cells and you don't give them any sympathy. Just because she looks human doesn't mean she is."

His gun started to drop slightly, Gwen edged slowly back towards the room, she had never meant to leave and had expected Jack to call her back but the click of the hammer on his Webley had been as loud as Big Ben to her. Owen threw his hands up in the air, patient or not it really wasn't worth dieing, again, for someone he didn't know and was by his best guess a murder, well Jack was never wrong was he?

Gwen took the chance and stepped forward, it was a risky strategy when the gun safety was off, but she was betting on his professionalism. She took a fairly long stride and caught the back of his knees pushing the left one slightly and he fell slightly lifting his gun in the air, she grabbed his hands and flicked the safety catch back on. Jack didn't struggle, his fight was gone, Ianto stepped forward and took the gun unprotesting from his hands. Jack was shaking, Gwen had never seen him like this an she helped him to his feet, Ianto putting a hand to support his waist, he held on to the edge of the bed like it was the only thing solid in the world.

"You have me all wrong Gerald, it isn't what you think" Wheezed the woman.

Jack just stared hunched over the end of the bed

"Just give me a chance to explain"

"Try not to talk love." Said Owen, he looked pointedly at Jack. "You can explain in the morning after a good nights sleep."

"Who the hell is Gerald?" Asked Gwen looking at Ianto over Jacks back, Ianto just shrugged.

The woman tried pushing herself into a sitting position, the exertion causing her blood pressure to fall again and she dropped back onto the bed, out cold again. Owen took his as his final cue.

"Get him the hell out of here" Owen hissed "Or he won't need the gun to kill her."


	4. Chapter 4

_Hi again, sorry it has taken awhile but this bit didn't want to come out - the next bit is already writing itself!!_

_Thanks for reading more!._

Jack holstered the gun and turned away, his face set so no one could tell how he felt, though that told his team everything. He pushed past Gwen,

"Go home Gwen, I think you have done enough here today" he snapped as she stepped backwards out of his way.

Ianto went to put a hand on his shoulder, but he twisted away, anyone looking closely enough might just have caught a tear in the corner of his eye, or it might just have been the air conditioning. Jack stalked away and didn't look back. Ianto hurried after him, he felt someone should but this was one of the few times recently he was just doing it to clean up, take it on the chin for the team. Everything was falling apart and he didn't know why.

"You know you really could go home Gwen." Said Owen quietly "I'm going to have to stay all night and I'll need someone to babysit in the morning, I'm hoping Tosh will take a shift too."

Gwen nodded, she wanted to get to the bottom of this now but emotions were running too high. Rhys was out there waiting for her, dependable, lovely Rhys. How many times had she betrayed him to sort out problems at Torchwood, no sort out problems for Jack. Yes all she needed now was a cuddle on the sofa and a glass of wine, a big glass of wine.

"I'll try and be back for 6 then, you know what the traffic can be like even at that time on a morning. Give me a call if you need me"

"You're on speed dial right now."

Owen reflected on what had just happened as Gwen left, a year ago that conversation wouldn't have happened, they would have been like two tigers circling each other to try and prove their dominance. Death had mellowed him though, after those first few days when he really didn't take in the extraordinary gift he had been given it had changed him. He took care not to get into something that would break him and just like any living person he tried not to do the really stupid things that would get him sent back to that darkness. He had tried discussing it with his notoriously taciturn leader but he had one thing that Jack didn't, Owen had uncertainty he never knew when the energy might run out. Jack had started to pour out the pain of knowing whatever happened he was there to pick up the pieces till the end of the universe and then stopped, looked at Owen and shook his head.

"At least when it finally gets too much I can just take a little Retcon and forget the worst of a day."

Owen stood and wondered how many times Jack had given them all a little Retcon? He looked back at the woman, the Retcon certainly hadn't worked for that memory then.

He had done as much as he could for the woman at this moment, but he had a feeling there was more to come and he had other things to deal with. He wrote a few notes on the computer and called out for Tosh, the uber clever voice recognition software throwing his voice through the speaker system in the hub so it sounded like she was stood behind him.

"Tosh, you got any clues who she is yet?" he asked

"I've never seen anything like it." She replied softly "I have hundreds of returns."

Owen wasn't really listening, she was about to launch off into techno babble and his brain didn't have the capacity at the moment.

"Look as a humble suggestion if she was with TW1 try the X-files." The team always had a chuckle about that one, long before some daft American came along and created a frankly preposterous team of alien hunters Torchwood had designated it's personnel files with an X.

"I need a name for that really" she said "the photos weren't stored electronically at first."

"Whatever Tosh, look can you do that from this station? I need to talk to Jack and he's stomped off in a strop but I don't want to leave her alone."

There was a short silence, Tosh didn't like working from different stations, she liked the screen at this angle and all her little settings on the keyboard, Owen had to wonder how close to OCD she was at times.

"Gwen told me what happened." She said quietly

A few minutes later Tosh quietly let her self back into the medical room the only sound coming from the heels of her shoes. She carried an armful of files and set them down on the desk next to Owen, some of the photographs were on top and Owen took more than a cursory glance at the photo of the casualty clearing station.

"You do wonder what he has seen sometimes" said Owen in an uncharacteristically altruistic manner before throwing his chair back and wheeling half way across the room.

"Normal baby sitting duties, I won't be too far away if you just shout." He said rifling through the drug cabinet. "I've given her enough sedative to knock out your average horse, though there is nothing average about her." He rattled two bottles experimentally and opened them tipping out some of the contents into a small plastic cup.

"I'm going to try the X-files like you suggested." Said Tosh smiling quickly at Owen, "Gwen had sifted out some of the more official files so I am going to start looking for each of the names." She pushed her glasses up her nose and looked down in the mousey way she often did when she was embarrassed, rattling papers she started tapping on the computer. Owen paused as he left the room, he wished he could think of the right thing to say at the moment but as always he was so tongue tied he just hunched his shoulders and left.

Owen jogged up the stairs into the main hall of the hub, it was eerie seeing the computers flashing away by themselves. So Gwen had gone, Tosh was downstairs and he knew where the other two would be, he looked up so see the wildly moving shadows in Jacks office. Owen was never sure what went on in that office these days, but Owen being Owen he really didn't care what he walked in, so with a swift knock on the glass he swept into the room. Luckily everyone was clothed but there was some serious body language issues going on here, Jack was hunched over his desk his head in his hands while Ianto had his palms flat on the other side of the desk. Both of them looked directly at him as he bounced into the room, he liked to be the opposite of everyone else just for the drama value.

"Can I help?" Asked Jack sardonically.

"My preliminary report." Said Owen. "I'll save you the trouble of reading it because there is nothing more remarkable than I have already told you about, apart from a new bruise that seems to be forming on her left hip, but judging by the recovery rate on that shoulder wound by the time you get down there you won't even know."

Jack opened the top page of the report and then closed it again putting his head back in his hands.

"I want her restrained until I can question her tomorrow morning." Said Jack wearily, "Cuff her to the bed frame and make sure there is nothing sharp within reach, something that can regenerate that fast might just cut off a hand to escape."

"Christ Jack but you really need a crash course in positive thinking." Snapped Owen

"All the same unfortunately he is right, until we know what we are dealing with caution is the name of the game." Said Ianto in his normal sage way. "For comfort sake should I break out the furry cuffs?" he raised an eyebrow.

Owen suppressed a smile, you never knew what was going on behind that expressionless gaze.

"Just do it." Growled Jack, sinking a few inches closer to the desk.

Ianto snapped a mock salute, but his face dropped when Jack narrowed his eyes at him and he turned and started trying to find the keys to the armoury in his pocket. Owen folded his arms across his chest and stood staring at Jack.

"Can I help?" Asked Jack without looking up.

"More what I can do for you?" he replied, holding out his open palm and showing Jack three tablets, one white and two orange and cream capsules.

"No" said Jack forcefully.

"Look stop with the macho shit Jack, you took me on to be the medic for this sorry outfit and it does not need six years at medical school to tell you are in pain. Regenerate, immortal whatever you still feel pain, mental and physical and frankly only a complete wanker would refuse help."

"Finished?" Asked Jack throwing himself back in his chair, Owen just raised an eyebrow and held out his open hand again.

"Well if drugs don't work would you like to talk about it?" asked Owen looking round for a chair which he finally found hidden in the corner, and sat in it throwing his feet on the desk.

"That would be rude in about twenty different earth cultures and you don't want to know how many alien ones." Said Jack with a realisation that his 'My door is always open' policy was about to backfire. Owen just sat there, waiting knowing that Jack hated silence more than anything and would fill it if he was left long enough.

Outside Myfanwy screeched, Ianto must have taken the opportunity to feed her on the way to the armoury. Owen wanted to look round and watch her wheeling round the Hub, it was calming watching her glide round the obelisk but he was trying to out stare Jack. They sat in an uncomfortable silence for what seemed like hours, till Jack started leafing through the file, trying his hardest to ignore Owen.

"Are you going to sit there all night?" asked Jack

"No where else to go." He hardly paused for breath before launching into his hardly thought out plan, "So is this Gerald, it was Gerald wasn't it, some long lost brother or just a doppelganger you forgot to mention?"

Owen knew he had made a mistake and quickly took his feet off the desk and got himself into a position where he could run if he needed to, Jack wasn't a violent man in the main but he could shout with the best of them.

"None of your business Owen." He looked at him through hooded lids "The past stays where it belongs."

"Which is why you are so bothered about these files?" Sod it he thought, can't kill me twice. "Jack you know me, I don't do therapy, if the drugs don't work drink until they do, but you really look like a man who needs to get some history of his chest."

"You don't have long enough." Said Jack fingering a copy of the picture that had caught everyones attention.

"Well give me an edited highlights then."

"Remind me Owen, which is which?" said Jack pointing at the three coloured pills on the tables.

Owen sighed, he would never break through that impenetrable cloak,

"White should take away the pain, orange will do the same and might help you sleep." He stood up and moved towards the door. "I'll be on the sofa if you change your mind and want to finish the tale." He slammed the door.

"I never started" said Jack under his breath.

He picked up the orange tablets and grabbed a dusty bottle out of his desk drawer, he took a swig and then leaned back in his chair, it would all still be here tomorrow.


	5. Chapter 5

_Thank you everyone who has read, reviewed and marked up the story. I hope you are enjoying it!_

It was still dark when Gwen drove her Saab into the garage, she felt like she never saw daylight sometimes. She had got home late and made a microwave dinner for an uncomplaining Rhys, she had listened to him talking about his day and not said a word about hers. But that was how it worked these days. There was nothing on the tele so she had given him a conciliatory shag and laid awake most of the night listening to his snoring. She had kissed his cheek lightly as she left him still asleep to keep her promise to Owen, she really should take him on holiday she thought as she shoved her hands deeper in the pockets of her jeans, when she had cleared a bit more of her desk.

She keyed in her code on the pad and waited as the hydraulics opened the door, she waved at the hidden camera knowing Ianto would be watching, hoping he was making the coffee. She had tried having the window open wide driving down here but what she really needed to wake up was a shower. She hadn't wanted to wake Rhys though so she had scrambled round in the dark and put on the same clothes that she had worn the day before. She would see what was in her locker and hope that no one noticed. The Hub was empty, the screen savers on Toshs computer was processing numbers, her footsteps echoed on the cold metal. She threw her coat on the back of her chair and went up to the spotless kitchen.

She passed Owen reclined on the couch with his eyes shut, she knew he wasn't asleep but he was zoned out with some sort of thrash metal pulsing through his head phones. Most surprising was the fact that Jack hadn't made an appearance at his office window, he liked to survey his domain when it was invaded – even by one of the team, in fact the Hub seemed dead with no one around. She went to the coffee machine, it somehow felt wrong touching the great silver machine that was Iantos baby. It took her back to her days working in the fancy pub on the edge of the city while she was at college, Ianto had spent hours explaining the intricacies of the steam and ensuring the grounds were well packed and she had done her best to look as if she was learning. God but that seemed so long ago, she was trying to please then, now she would just tell him to get out of the way and get on with it. She pulled the mugs together from the cupboards and the draining board, then replaced Owens mug reverently on the high shelf it had migrated to with disuse.

Using the last of the milk she arranged the mugs on the tray and realised she didn't have a clue who was around, so she took the tray through to the board room to look through the CCTV. She put the tray down and pulled her phone out of her pocket, thumbing in the word MILK and sent it to Ianto hoping he hadn't set off yet. She went to the console and typed in her password and clicked onto the hubs internal information system, engrossed in what she was doing she picked up her own coffee and registered the chirping of an incoming text. It took a few seconds to register it wasn't her normal ring tone, perhaps Rhys had been fiddling again, but the screen wasn't lit up. Puzzled she picked up the phone and was about to turn it over in that goofy way that everyone does to prove what they know is true when she heard a sound from under the table. She put her cup down and took a step back, automatically reaching for her pistol even though it was locked in the armoury, was she too far away from the panic button? Was it an alien on the loose? Had Janet got out of the cell? She pushed herself against the wall as an arm came out from under the table, the blue glow of the mobile screen echoing down it.

"Shit, look, who's there?" she said sounding even more Welsh than normal, scared and out of breath.

The arm kept coming moving up towards a head of dark hair slowly moving upwards till she could see the face, did it have a face she thought irrationally.

"You woke me up for milk?" said the body turning into Ianto

"Shit, Bollocks." Said Gwen sliding down the wall "You gave me a shock. What the hell you doing under there anyway?"

From her lower position she could see the sleeping bag and pillow under the table and the shirt and trousers folded precisely a little further away. She couldn't really remember seeing Ianto anything less than fully dressed before, apart from that time in Jacks office and boy did she want to blank out that mental image.

"I needed somewhere to sleep and it was dark and quiet in here, until you came in." He slid out of the sleeping bag and came out from the table yawning and ruffling his hair. Gwen stood and handed him a cup of coffee looking away as she realised he was only wearing boxers and a pair of black socks. She cleared her throat and he had the grace to look slightly sheepish as he scrabbled back under for the table for his shirt.

"Most of us have a house or a flat to go home to of an evening." Said Gwen to fill the silence as Ianto buttoned up his shirt.

"Someone needs to be around in case." He said pulling on his trousers.

"What about Jack? In fact what about Jack, I would have thought you would have spent the night at, well his place." Said Gwen her brain starting to work faster than her mouth as the caffeine started to kick in.

"Didn't want to disturb him, he doesn't get much sleep."

Gwen tutted under her breath, after his little show last night he didn't deserve any sort of consideration.

Gwen sat down and saw the tray of cooling drinks on the table and remembered why she was there in the first place.

"Owen was around all night, he could have stayed on alert." She said watching him still lying in the sofa.

"He wouldn't have heard an atom bomb drop over that music, besides he wouldn't have been able to leave."

Gwen nodded and flicked through images showing nothing more than normal and ended on the medical room, Tosh was there, asleep at her terminal. Gwen panned the camera round and saw the patient still in bed and she saw the handcuffs.

"What the hell is that?" she spat at Ianto

"Jacks orders." He said with a shrug.

"Well you just tell Jack" she started, then stopped as she noticed the woman moving slightly. She was awake, her eyes open but she was just laid quietly, occasionally pulling at the metal restraints to try and get comfortable.

"I'll get Jack." Said Ianto over her shoulder

"No I think Jack has done quite enough already." Said Gwen sharply, "My turn now, but you can keep him quiet."

The coffee forgotten Gwen took the back stairs down to where Tosh was lightly dozing with her back to the patient. Gwen gave a smile to the woman and touched Tosh lightly on the shoulder, Tosh woke and fumbled with her glasses as if to prove she had been awake all the time. She started to clear her throat to say something when Gwen pointed behind her and Tosh realised they weren't alone. The woman held up her hands, both kept near the side of the bed by the handcuffs, but was unable to be heard because of the oxygen mask still on her face. Gwen stepped over quietly and lifted the mask off her face with her normal coy smile.

"I'm Gwen, you're in hospital, sort of, you're safe now, you gave us all a bit of a shock last night."

The woman smiled and swallowed, making a squeaking sort of noise as she tried to speak, Tosh came over with a glass of water and went to hand it to her, then realised her mistake and helped her to take a sip.

"Thank you." She said looking from Gwen to Tosh and back again. "Though you have no reason to believe me I promise I won't kill you." She said rattling the metal on metal.

Gwen and Tosh exchanged more glances,

"Well when we know a little more about you perhaps we'll be able to help." Said Tosh, going to pat the womans arm but then taking a step back.

"Why don't we start with who you are?" said Gwen encouragingly, she wanted as much information as possible out of her before Jack came in all guns blazing.

"I don't know any more." She said quietly, "Anyway that isn't the question you want an answer to, you want to know what I am."

Gwen smiled again.

"We did wonder."

"I want to make one thing clear, just because I am not human does not mean I am here to murder, pillage destroy the earth or wipe out the human race as you know it."

Gwen pulled over one of the stools from round the edge of the room, this could be a long one.

"So if you want the right questions what are you and why are you here?" said Tosh simply

"I don't really know who I am, I come from a different planet that I do know. I think it is in this solar system and I know it doesn't exist anymore." She took a deep breath screwed her eyes shut, "I saw it explode as an asteroid slammed into it."

Gwen patted her hand in a conciliatory way, how on earth were you supposed to answer that, perhaps Halmark did a card "Sorry your planet exploded".

"So did you fall through the Rift then?" said Gwen, trying to piece together the facts so far. "You're not a Shape Shifter are you?" she said quickly.

"No and No." she answered sharply

"So how did you get here then?" asked Tosh trying to get the conversation back online

"Brought here by the Doctor, I can't believe I am saying the name out loud here at Torchwood." She said looking round as if waiting for something nasty to happen, "Well I say here but of course that would be relative."

Gwen looked at Tosh, of course she had heard of this Doctor through her ferreting in the Torchwood achieves but that was ancient history. Tosh started typing at the computer, her normal fall back when she didn't understand something.

"I can't detect any recent activity of that type round Cardiff." She said turning back to the other two women.

"No I got here by car." She said smiling "this time."

"So how did you get here originally love, look you've got to have a name it makes it difficult if you don't." said Gwen.

"Ianto says try Jennifer Smith, recently of Newcastle upon Tyne, listed as missing two weeks ago, car found abandoned with a suicide note by a local beach. Single, no children, not missed for three days." Said Owen coming into the room. "Anyone think to tell me my patient was awake? No thought not." He cast one of his patented head down stares round the room and bundled in fussing round checking numbers and machines, finding nothing but perfect figures. Gwen pushed herself back across the room, she had lost control of the interrogation and she was struggling to make sense of it all anyway.

"I have a question for you." Said Owen writing down his observations, "What on earth have you done to Jack to make him hate you so much? He normally reserves that sort of venom for goolies like the Abaddon." He looked directly at her and she looked lost. She pursed her lips.

"Who's Jack when he's at home?"

"Captain Jack Harkness, the bloke with the historical sense of fashion and the man who you decided to throw to the floor while sustaining a rather nasty laser burn and now you can't remember who he is. Perhaps I need to do some more tests after all." Owen stopped looking at the none existent wound on her shoulder and started flashing his pen light in her eyes. She blinked rapidly as the light blinded her.

"So that is the mythical Jack Harkness, who knew?" she said

"Come on spill the beans then, I'm not a patient man, and I see no need for you to be a patient anymore either."

"When I worked for Torchwood Captain Harkness was a bit of an enigma, he was always out when One came to call, oh how many years of searching if I'd know." She said wistfully. "I think they came after him when they found out what I was, but we're not the same, him and I, I had access to all the secrets and he is certainly not the same as me. If only I'd put two and two together."

Everyone looked slightly mystified and shuffled round the floor, no-one dared ask what she meant about that, Jacks outburst still fresh in there minds, Tosh kept tapping away, head down and the few seconds silence rang loud round the room.

"You called him Gerald though." Said Owen taking a pace back

"Well that was what knew him as, but it was nothing to do with Torchwood. Gerald McCowie, Captain Mccowie, The Royal Scots." There was a far away look in her eyes. "He insisted I treat his men before him even though his wounds should have been far greater, though when I got round to him they weren't too bad. It was an instant connection, a smile, his Scottish accent, we seemed to have so much to talk about. But war is a funny task master and things happened, bad things." She paused for breath and looked around.

"You have no idea how long I searched for him, the man who never existed, no war record, no grave, no memorial, no family, no nothing, as if he never existed."

"There was a good reason I disappeared while you were around, Miss Freda Jones." Said Jack stood large as life in the doorway. "Or should I call you Nurse Lucy Smith, or 20 other names that seem to pop up, keep the names simple I like it, unlike you, hence the reason I always found somewhere else to be when I heard you were coming."

"It wasn't like that." She started to say, Jack took a step forward and grabbed the end of the bed.

"J Section were exactly like that, If it's alien it's ours and if it's alive torture it." He spat at her. "Go on deny it, your signature, or one of them, is all over these." He threw a handful of yellowing transfer orders on the bed.

"I didn't know what they were doing, I was on a different project they just need a signature on a requisition slip."

"The get out clause of a thousand despots. Save it, I've heard it all before and I don't need to hear it now." Even a rare nights sleep hadn't calmed him down you could almost feel the anger coming off him like sparks.

"Guilty until proven guilty, nothing has changed at Torchwood then." She snorted "Just lock me up and throw away the key."

"You know what, perhaps that's a good idea, Gwen put it in the cells and when I have calmed down then we can talk. Hey it might take some time but we have a few centuries!"

Gwen started to protest but Jack just held up a hand,

"You know the one good thing about Torchwood in those days? When the boss said something the rest of the team actually listened. For once can someone do what I ask please?" Jack was in a rare old mood with himself, he didn't like the comparisons she had given him about the old Torchwood. When he had started here too many years ago to even think about it had been harsh, but those were the times, it had bumbled along until the period after the Second World War and then the darkness had begun. He shivered when he remembered how the organisation had been twisted and how spectacularly that had backfired nearly obliterating the earth. However there was truth in what she was saying, was he doing exactly the same to her as they had done to all those other unfortunates, he had always wanted to work with compassion, undo some of that wrong.

"Give her some clothes first, I want to do some reading up before I ask the wrong questions."


	6. Chapter 6

Hi Folks, Sorry it took a while to get this one - total system failure lost the document at just the wrong time!

I hope this is going in the direction you would like, fireworks next time I think. Keep reading folks and many thanksto all of you who have taken the time to leave some feedback.

Ianto stood apologetically at the door to the cell essentially they hadn't changed in over 100 years, hewn out of the bedrock that formed the Bay it was cold and damp. The shelf that could double as a bed or a bench was unforgiving and the bucket in the corner was self-explanatory.

"You should see the hotels they book us into." Said Ianto trying to lighten the situation.

The woman who had agreed to be called Jenny for the foreseeable future sat heavily on the ledge in her official issue boiler suit, her own clothes being mangled by Owen tearing at them to expose her shoulder and the laser burn. She held up her hands to get the handcuffs released and sighed.

"Can I get you anything." He asked.

"I suppose a mattress and a duvet are out of the question?" she said tapping the rock.

"I could do a pillow and a blanket." He replied. "And Owen says if you want anything for the pain I can bring something down."

She shook her head and Ianto backed out of the small room, he wasn't really sure what she was shaking her head at but he had felt uncomfortable just putting her here, it could have been him if Jack hadn't been forgiving over Lisa. He closed the door and turned the key he could hear Janet scrapping at the rock again she could always smell fresh meat, he took the suppressant spray off the wall and squirted a dose in her cell. You just didn't need that sound going through your head on top of everything else.

After running a few errands Ianto returned to the main floor of the Hub where all was not well, Gwen was sticking the photos on any vertical surface and running back to the whiteboard and scratching notes with the squeaky pen and shouting out various facts and statements every two seconds. Tosh was frantically beating the keyboard with a heavier than normal keystroke in time with Gwens shouts and it sounded like Owen was throwing things round in the autopsy room, so nothing new there then. He was about to turn on his heel and hide in the archives when Gwen saw him and shouted across the Hub.

"So spill the beans, what's eating his nibs then?"

Ianto glanced upwards, there was one place where you could catch the reflection of a reflection that could tell you if there was anyone sat at the desk. The desk light was on but he couldn't tell if there was anyone sat there.

"I wouldn't know, I haven't asked." He said quietly.

Gwen turned round to face him,

"Well can you make an educated guess, I thought he was going to kill her in there, don't you think it was a bit out of character?"

"Which question am I supposed to answer first?" asked Ianto quietly looking pointedly up at the glass fronted office.

Gwen plonked herself down on her chair, deflated.

Tosh kept tapping away for a second or two and then gave a quiet hiss of satisfaction as she hit the enter button a last time.

"Guys I have something here." She said quietly, as usual they ignored her as they bickered among themselves.

"Sexual tension, that's what it always boils down to." shouted a voice from the autopsy pit.

"Not useful Owen." Shouted Gwen and picked up a pen from her desk and started tapping her teeth.

"First he seems all happy to get this blast from the past then he turns into psycho boss the second Tosh gives him two file numbers. Look Yan you've got to know something, find the files in the achieves."

Ianto threw his hands in the air and walked behind Tosh, he lowered his voice.

"Please don't bring me into this."

"You don't need to I have the information here." Said Tosh trying to be heard

Gwen started pacing again sucking the pen, picking up papers and putting them down again.

"Owen what is she?"

"Don't know, seen nothing like it before. Gwen I wouldn't do that with the pen." He said wincing from the pit.

"I found nothing on the databases that matches, human form matches are few and far between actually." Said Tosh turning round to find everyone looking the other way.

"What do you mean about the pen Owen?" asked Gwen quickly writing something down.

"Well I think that was the one I dropped when I was doing the post mortem on the slime rat thing last week."

Gwen threw the pen as far as she could and heard the splash as it fell into the lake at the bottom of the obelisk. She started spitting and grabbed an empty cup, Ianto passed her one with last nights coffee in.

"However I have managed to crack the personnel file, if anyone is interested." Said Tosh quietly, continuing tapping away on the keyboard.

It's amazing thought Tosh, she could dance naked round the Hub and still no one would be interested in how she spent a month sorting the alien life form data bank so she could give them that information. Give them gossip however and you could hear a pin drop. Owen ran up the steps two at a time.

"Say that again Tosh, you have the personnel file."

"Doesn't shed that much light on it I'm afraid, joined 1947, worked in a classified position in J section until 1959 when her file is closed. Get this the file is closed due to DIS."

"DIS, Death in Service?" asked Ianto

"Always said that Torchwood don't do pensions." Said Owen leaning over her shoulder and reading the screen. "Now that is interesting, says here car was found by the beach no body was ever recovered cause of death presumed suicide."

"Exactly what the police file said this time." Said Ianto joining the pair looking at the screen.

"Doesn't help with the original question though." Said Gwen still looking at the whiteboard, "What the hell rattled his cage?"

She looked at Ianto again who avoided her gaze and started picking up coffee cups, Owen kept looking at the screen and asked Tosh a really complicated question rather than look at Gwen.

"So I guess I have to go up there then?" she said snappily.

No one contradicted her.

She carried a mug of Iantos best coffee up the metal stairway to Jacks office and paused at the top, the glass door was unusually closed so she paused for a second and tapped on the wooden frame. Jack looked up and motioned for her to come in, as she pushed the door he shoved some papers into a metal tin and slammed his desk drawer. Gwen put the coffee mug down in silence and sat in the chair, the silence told Gwen more than the angry ranting of earlier in the day.

"Would you like to talk about it?" she asked quietly.

Jack shook his head almost imperceptibly and moved a few bits of paper round his desk while Gwen sat waiting for him to speak. Finally the shuffling stopped and they sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few more yawning seconds before Gwen lent forward and stroked his fingers, he turned his hand over and held her hand.

"Jack I've seen you go through a thousand different things, shot aliens, deal with your team dieing and then coming back to life, Hell I've even seen you cope with your own death more than once but never I have seen you phased like that, I thought you were going to have a fit."

He turned over her hand and started tracing a pattern on her palm then suddenly realised what he was doing and pulled his hands back, Gwen looked slightly sheepish and sat with her hands in her lap. He looked directly into her eyes, boring into her soul as only Jacks baby blues could.

"I've meet hundreds, thousands of people and most of then I forget." He smiled "Even I don't have a brain big enough remember everyone, just the ones I like."

"Will you remember me Jack." Asked Gwen quietly.

"Oh yes Gwen you are one of the special ones, stored in a small box in my mind for eternity and that is a very long time"

She smiled at him, god but he loved that little gap in her teeth, the way she still couldn't look him in the eye at times.

"But you said you only met her twice, I would have thought in the scheme of things she would have only been a blip in your time line."

"It was what she stood for at that exact moment in time, a shining beacon in the darkness, two days in a hell that I just can't explain. Over 200 men went over the top that day, just 32 made it back and all for an inch or two of stinking, suffocating mud." The emotions that Jack had been suppressing all day finally welled to the surface and an involuntary tear rolled down one cheek. "I must have taken a pounding because they took me in unconscious and she saved me in every way."

"What do you mean Jack?" she said quietly

"I went to war because it seemed like an awfully big adventure, just like everyone else it was boys own stuff and I was running away from some of the things I had become, I changed my name and kept one step ahead of the Provosts. A few years of blood and friendships made and lost in a hail of bullets I just wanted it all to stop." He paused for a second pulling at his lip in that ever so familiar way. "We connected you know and I knew I had to break that link as soon as it was made, but it wasn't on my terms, so final."

He tried to deflect her attention and took a noisy sip of the coffee but Gwen wasn't put off.

"So why so angry, I would have thought finding someone you knew like that would have been a happy event, well not the shooting part." She said back pedalling quickly.

"A clash of two worlds, a utopian view of a single moment in time with the edges buffed by the sands of time with the stark realisation that you have just spent the last 90 years of your life in love with a monster."

The silence stretched out across the office as they both looked at anything but each other willing the other to say something. Gwen cracked first as they both knew she would.

"And you're so certain she is the devil incarnate are you?"

"You want evidence?" he threw the files across the desk as he spat out the words.

The files knocked over the mug, threatened to tip over the coral garden and pushed a few small slivers of metal that had none earthly atoms onto the floor. Gwen shook her head and grabbed at his hand again, but he pulled it away the link broken.

"Have you read them yet? Are you sure they tell you what you think they say or are you just making an assumption, you know that there are times that Torchwood files aren't as complete as they should be."

Jack just threw up his hands, "Perhaps I don't want to know, perhaps it is even worse than I think, perhaps we should just let sleeping dogs lie."

"And what do we do with the woman currently in the cells, is she supposed to just rot in there while you stick your head in the sand for the rest of eternity?"

"Stop referring to that thing as a woman, it is an alien just the same as the Weevil in the next cell and I don't see you offering to take Janet out for a drink. You are projecting human emotions onto an unknown entity, remember the shape shifters at your wedding, human enough till they wanted to disembowel you."

"No it's not like that with her, let me talk to her Jack, let me find out the truth so you know once and for all."

Jack bowed his head and covered it with his hands for a few seconds before stretching out.

"Fine, talk to it but not alone and no weapons in reach and makes sure…" Gwen cut him off midsentence.

"Let me do my job Jack, trust me to do what you took me on for."

Jack was about to reply when an alarm started sounding in the Hub,

"Talk to me Tosh" he shouted as he ran from the office taking the metal steps two at a time.

"Three separate reports of an attack by a disfigured man in a boiler suit in Splott, police are on their way along with the ambulance."

"Owen, Tosh we're on the move. Gwen remember what I said, Ianto I expect you to keep her safe." He said cryptically before running towards the garage. "Baggsie I drive."

As the door slammed shut silence was only punctuated by the water flowing into the hub, Ianto looked at Gwen, she shrugged and started towards the cells. Ianto followed quickly behind.


	7. Chapter 7

Finally I've caught up with m own life!! Hope the wait was worth it, I hope I'll be quicker next time.

About halfway down the first flight of stairs Ianto finally caught up with Gwen and grabbed her arm,

"What are you doing?" he asked urgently

"Jack said I could question her." She said omitting the rest of the details, actually she was surprised Jack hadn't been in touch already to remind her, driving through the Cardiff traffic must be taking all his concentration. Ianto gave her one of his inscrutable looks and she felt particularly robust in her argument, obviously he felt the same because after a few moments he let go of her arm and she stepped back slightly.

"Do you need a hand?" he asked quietly

"You can give me a hand getting her to the interview room if you have a moment." She said then added quickly "But I think I'll do the questioning alone, woman to woman like."

Ianto nodded and followed quietly behind her, Gwen knew what she was doing and he could learn a lot from her – he had to hand it to Jack even though his recruitment decisions seemed wacky at the time each one of them had brought something to the team.

Just outside the cell area Ianto stopped Gwen again.

"Are you sure this is ok, Jack seemed fairly unhappy this morning."

"We talked it through Ianto, he agreed he was being irrational, well more irrational than normal anyway." She took his arm and stroked it in her motherly way. "Ianto I'll be fine, you can keep in ear shot if you're worried."

She walked past Janet, who eyed her with the normal distain and gave only a small growl, and upto the plastic partition to look in on the woman. She was laid on her back the shelf the blanket slipping to the floor. Gwen took a deep breath and tapped on the plastic with the over happy face she reserved for the days when she had had an argument with Rhys and she thought no one would notice. Jenny woke with a start and in what could only be described as a primal move slipped off the shelf and crouched in a small ball in the corner. Gwen was appalled and ran over to comfort her, Ianto was slightly more weary and checked his pistol was in his waist band but he was relieved to see he didn't need it.

Gwen was doing what Gwen did best, the human and emotional part of the job that the rest of them seemed to have left behind. I mean think about what they had all done in the past year, Suzie had started killing people to test theories, he had hidden a cyber woman and shot Owen who had then shot and killed Jack. There was only Tosh who hadn't actually been overly handy with a gun, but then again she had the empathy of a toaster unless you were a sick hard drive. Gwen was motioning him over with a flick of her arm and he helped her get the woman to her feet and back on the ledge. She was shivering despite the blanket that was now wrapped round her shoulders; they really had to do something about the damp down here.

After helping Gwen get Jenny upto the interview room just off the Hub Ianto had pulled one of the very 21st century fan heaters from the store set it to full heat under the table. All the Gucci bits of kit the rift could throw up and there was nothing so far that could turn a drafty damp underground Victorian bunker into a tropical beach, now that would be useful. Another blanket and a hot chocolate later Jenny was just about able to stop her teeth chattering enough to talk, Gwen had her jotter pad in front of her but she never used it anymore, the whole interview was recorded and transcribed by the mainframe in the time it took to get back to the main floor.

"So where do we start then?" asked Jenny

"I always find the beginning as good a place as any." Said Gwen with what she hoped was an 'I'm on your side' type of grin.

There were a few moments silence while Jenny gathered her thoughts and then she started.

"The first question always used to be what are you and what do you want with earth?" She snorted at the thought, "Very 1960's scifi"

Gwen said nothing, tactic number one if you leave a big enough hole someone will try and fill it. It had taken Jack a while to grasp that fact.

"I just want to live my life, I didn't choose to come here. I come in peace." She made the Vulcan peace sign Gwen looked up and was struck by the pleading in her eyes, she was scared and Gwen didn't know why.

"You said you didn't come through the rift, so where'd you leave your spaceship?" She asked trying to lighten the mood.

"I was brought here by the Doctor, snatched from a planet that disintegrated seconds later when a meteorite the size of an oil tanker smashed into it. We talked about where it would be best for me to go to and he mentioned this lovely little planet called earth, the main species looked the same, said they were nice in a funny sort of way and that I would get on very nicely if he could find the right time and place to set me down. I say talked about, more talked at but that seems to be his way, anyway he decided that the middle of a war zone would explain the fact I had no parents and was a bit quiet so London in the Blitz 1942 was mentioned. Unfortunately, as I found out to my cost, the Doctor has a little problem with transposing numbers and we ended up in 1492, I stepped out to have a look and his little blue box suddenly swished and zap disappeared."

Gwen sat slightly open mouthed as she did a quick calculation on the pad.

"That means you are over 500 years old, I do have a question for you, what moisturiser do you use I need me some of that."

"I know I don't understand it myself, I know I heal very fast and age very slowly though that seems to be speeding up, I think it must be to do with the excess of radiation that you unleashed during the last century."

"So you are another immortal then?" Asked Gwen quietly, putting two and two together with Jacks mood.

"Are you asking if Jack and I are cut from the same cloth, I don't think so, I have some sort of symbiotic realtionship." She said cryptically.

"Now you've lost me"

"My original society was much more advanced than Earth is today, people didn't get sick anymore, but cut off your head and it classes as fairly terminal. It's all down to some symbiotic organisms in the blood stream people lived for what I guess equates to hundreds of years any disease they somehow fight it, injuries get repaired, I grew a finger back in the 18th century, didn't half hurt that though. I don't pretend to understand I wasn't destined for the medical stream at home, which is strange considering that is what I have ended up doing most of my existence. Its been a blessing and a curse but life is here to be lived and until now I have."

Gwen was mesmerised, she wanted to ask so many questions about where she had been and what she done for all those years but she had to try and focus Jenny was getting tired and Gwen decided she could only ask one more question.

"So why did you decide to come to Cardiff today?'

Ianto had stayed in the main Hub watching the video feed and wrestling with what he had decided to do. He waited a few minutes to check that Gwen was really alright, but that was just an excuse because he felt he was about to betray all the trust he had built with Jack in the past year or so. He hoped it would be worth it. He mounted the stairs with a heavy heart but somehow his feet were moving without him towards Jacks office and their final destination behind the desk. He felt in the inside pocket of his inside jacket, the secret place even Jack didn't know about and found the key to his desk that he didn't know he had. Ianto had never used it before, in some ways he was hoping it didn't work, he noticed his own hand shaking as he pushed it in the keyhole. He shut his eyes and took a breath in through his nose as he turned the key, expecting some sort of alarm or knowing Jack a variety of weapon.

There was nothing, the lock clicked and Ianto pulled at the sticky old fashioned drawer to show the old fashioned files Jack had removed from the archive earlier. He griped them with sweaty palms and lifted them reverently out of the drawer and placed them gently on the desk, he looked behind him and after a second pulled the old fashioned office chair towards him. If he was going to commit one Torchwood crime and go through secret files he might as well compound it by sitting in Jacks chair. It felt like he was putting his hand in the cookie jar and grabbing a handful of the chocolate chip delights. He cracked his knuckles and flexed his fingers before wiping his hands on his trousers and gingerly tugged the corner of the top file and started to read.

He read every word of the first five, very boring bog standard annual appraisals starting in 1947 which in itself was a little odd as it would make her in her 80s but Torchwood did odd well. He started skimming the next few pages and in year eight things started to change, there was a job change from a desk based research position, with praise for her shorthand skills, to a roving investigator moving round the world for J Section. As with all Torchwood files of the time they ran round in circles without actually telling you anything, they must have run classes for the Cabinet Office. He was about to flick the file onto the floor when he flicked to the last page, it was red, not the flimsy pink of a carbon copy but red.

The words were angry; Ianto could feel the waves of hate coming from the paper. It was the Torchwood equivalent of an arrest warrant Alien Capture Form 30693, the plan of attack for a known alien, detailing any special powers, known dangers and how they were going to imprison it. Ianto quickly grabbed the other file, he had seen a few of these in the past when the team needed to know about the ins and outs of something that fell through the rift but he hadn't catalogued this file and it wasn't like any of the others. The file was unusually scuffed but followed all the rules of Torchwood interrogation, the first dozen pages were in the strange typed font that predated computer printing. Torchwood had started using alien tech very early and that little beauty was still working down in the interrogation room today, it recorded every thing that was said and turned it into a written account. The pages said very little at first, she told them who she was and answered all the standard questions, the same thing over and over again and none of the answers were particularly out of the ordinary. He flicked through a few more pages and the tone became more sinister, instead of just questioning they had turned to torture. Ianto flicked back to check the dates of each of the reports, the early questioning had taken two weeks, then a few days with nothing then three, no four weeks of some of the worst abuses he had ever heard of.

He wanted to put the file down and wipe it all from his memory but he knew he couldn't he wanted to know why Jack didn't want to read this file. Abruptly the period of torture ended with a highly dispassionate report detailing their findings, which were precisely nothing apart from the fact that what ever they had done was gone the next day. Iantos hands had gone cold he was having trouble turning the page, perhaps it was a sign he shouldn't go on. He cursed himself because he could see what the next page was, the off white of a transfer form, from the old bunkers of Torchwood One, pre Canary Wharf, to the medical laboratories once housed in Torchwood three. He didn't want to keep reading down the page, he rubbed his eyes and looked far into the corner of the room knowing what he was going to see. The humanoid with a name and a life that had served Torchwood so diligently had been turned into an alien artefact transferred for experimentation and Jack had signed the transfer receipt.


	8. Chapter 8

Ianto dragged his fingers through his hair and looked up at the small CCTV monitor in the corner of Jacks office, Gwen was sat looking at the woman nodding occasionally while she talked her head down as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. He took a deep breath in through his nose and started to speed read those last pages. He only needed an idea of what they had done and he knew that Owens reports read like the best pages of Chemistry Today, if there was such a publication, really Owen did waste his talents on drink and women. Used to thought Ianto correcting himself.

Even skimming these pages was unpleasant reading, so much more personal and brutal that anything even Owen could manage in his darkest moods with the Locuts and Rats, the Rat Jam experiment he had cleaned up after came to mind. The particularly sickening thing was that they just seemed to be doing it to provoke an ever increasing reaction, observations of the ambient conditions in the holding cell made him think it was in the layers that had been lost in the building of the barrage – Torchwood ran wide and deep, when they had sunk the pillars in the mid 90s they thought they had found underwater caves, no one telling the construction company that they had a top secret alien research facility. Jack had told the story one night after a particularly drunken team building event – aka a night at the pub – and how much retcon it had taken to convince the surveyor that you really did need that much concrete for a shaft 6 metres by 15 metres. Ianto had tried to follow up on those rooms, he always thought it was a shame when there was something without a record but Jacks mood had changed instantly and he had left it. It was probably a good thing he didn't know that Ianto had the original architect drawings in one of the vaults, they didn't have recton them and the poor guy had been found hanging from a tree a few weeks after completing them so he couldn't tell anyone.

There were only a few pages left in the document but it was finally too much for Ianto to cope with and his last cup of coffee and much of his last meal finally escaped his stomach. The finally few pages were truly horrendous, devoid of any humanity and even without medical training he could see the recorded vital signs slowly fading. Then abruptly the medical green pages stopped, he turned the page and was looking at the manila brown of the folder, he looked back a few pages and then stupidly flicked back through expecting the page to reappear. As he did so he noticed that caught in the bindings behind that last page were the remnants of another incident report, the jagged edges of a page ripped out.

Ianto sat back and took a swig of the water that permanently sat on Jacks desk to get rid of the foul taste left in his mouth. He closed the files and pursed his lips, he would have to clear up the vomit before it left a permanent mark on the wooden floor and empty the bin, he needed to see if there was an electronic record of that missing incident report, scratch that he would give Tosh that pleasure. But first he had put an end to what was happening downstairs, the least he could do was stop history repeating. He went to put the files back in the drawer but realised the effort would be useless, Jack was going to know that he had been through his things and boy was that going to take some explaining, but so was Jacks curious attitude.

Shaking just a little Ianto went to the interrogation room and politely knocked on the wire frame of the door, Jenny looked up as if she was about to be shot and Gwen smiled in that ever so polite way that she used when she was trying to give some cryptic message.

"I wondered if anyone wanted coffee?" He asked quietly, trying to play Gwens smiling game

"Triffick" said Gwen in her smiley voice, her Welsh accent came out more when she was stressed.

"Would you like to give me a hand?" Suggested Ianto trying to get Gwen alone so he could talk to her.

"I think we could all do with a break, don't you?" Jenny just nodded and held up her hands for the handcuffs.

"Don't worry about that, we won't be long." Said Ianto tugging at Gwens arm.

Jenny smiled and laid her head on her arms as the Torchwood pair sidled out of the small room and went up to the kitchenette.

"She's no threat" said Gwen confidently as Ianto started to grind some fresh coffee. The bile rose in his again.

"I read the files." He said quietly and turned to look Gwen in the eye. "It was horrible, what Torchwood used to do in the name of science and understanding. You need to know what they did to her before you go back in there, I wouldn't have blamed her for being a threat."

Gwen looked at Ianto, he worn his heart on his sleeve and it was showing, the milk jug he was holding was shaking alarmingly so she stepped forward and took it off him, he rubbed his arms in a friendly gesture which was all it took to crack him.

"God but Torchwood was full of monsters for such a long time, and I could have been one of them. I was supposed to go to J section next, the things they did, they pain they caused her and they cover it all up. Why would she come back here?"

"Well that's an easy one to answer" Said Gwen guiding him to the far side of the kitchenette and the bar stool that hardly ever got used. "To cut a long story short she was hoping that the rift would open up and swallow her, a bizarre sort of suicide because she didn't really know how to cope with a few things. I agree with you that the past was a dark place for Torchwood, but perhaps it's the best place now we can help her come to terms with her differences, find her somewhere, pull a few strings. I mean where else on planet earth would she find someone else who she can discuss the drawbacks and pitfalls of immortality?" She asked trying to lighten the mood.

Ianto jumped up like a scalded cat,

"No, we don't let Jack anywhere near her."

Gwen looked at him quizzically, over the last few weeks – ever since Jack had suddenly re-appeared in fact – Ianto had taken Jacks side in every argument.

"He's a liar and a charlatan, all that shouting and postulating earlier about signing requisition slips and he sparked off at her, well his name is on the transfer order to bring her here." He sniffed loudly and wiped his nose on the edge of his sleeve before Gwen could fish a tissue from her pocket. "You know he once told me he had done many things he wasn't proud of, he was a con-man and a thief before he got landed here permanently." Gwen nodded this was old news and while she didn't think she would 

when she heard it she had got over it. "He also told me some of the things he did for Torchwood, he said he would do anything just to stay by the rift because he knew at some point the Doctor would be back. Go to Man, he said he was, Go to Man for anything they didn't need to explain like disposing of bodies and getting information." Ianto couldn't say the words, he didn't want to cement the thought that Jack could have done all this.

"Are you trying to tell me you think Jack was involved in this torture?" Said Gwen quietly

"I don't know, read it Gwen, tell me I'm wrong but he signed the papers, he wanted it hidden, you tell me."

"Right" said Gwen decisively, "Executive decision, you go and put our guest in the boardroom, this has gone on long enough. I will go read these documents when they get back head Jack off at the pass and we will have this one out in the open."

"You won't have long to wait, Owen called in a few minutes ago to say they are on the way back."

"Righty ho, no time like the present then is there, coffee ready?" she asked quietly and Ianto hit the button over the coffee press. Her smile was waning, confronting Jack was a great idea on paper but in practice it could be messy. What did she have to loose? She asked herself, all he could do was fire her, Retcon her – which hadn't worked in the past, Retcon Rhys and make her forget the past two years of her life. On the plus side she might have some time to organise this wedding of hers.

She took the coffee and headed across the hub, pausing at the screen on Toshs desk to see where the tracker had the SUV, a good ten minutes away even with Jack driving like a maniac. Right, these files, couldn't be worse than the stuff CID would throw at the probationary PCs so they could have a good laugh when they went green. Good training for Torchwood really. Gwen skimmed the pages, she could see why Ianto was so upset but was still having trouble with Jacks attitude. It was gruesome reading and tallying with the things that she had been mentioned in the interview, Gwen could sense Torchwood spin in action it had been a well honed system of lies and half truths in the period that had started in the 1950s. Jack maintained that it was all due to the fact that the Americans had started their own "Alien department" after Roswell and Torchwood lost a valuable source of artefacts and therefore a large chunk of the money that came from alien technology. Ianto had often parodied one of the lessons he had been at in his induction when the speaker had started getting all frothy at the mouth about the fact that this had caused the decline of the British Empire and if the Yanks had only been sensible we could have invented the digital watch and ruled the world.

There was a warning shout from Ianto, the SUV was coming into the underground parking area and Jack was ordering Chinese for lunch. She had less than two minutes to work out what the hell to say. She hoped Ianto would have the sense to separate the other two and send him straight here, she fiddled with the papers again and then stood up, this was a stand up type of conversation. She walked over to the wall of windows and watched as Jack came up from the basement levels with a heavier than normal step and he looked up. There was a slight register of surprise but she guessed Jack might know 

exactly what was about to happen. He walked in his office and clocked the files on his desk.

"Not where I left them" he said looking directly at Gwen and looked over at the CCTV screen pressed a few of the controls and ended up with the boardroom, "And not where I left it."

"Jack, I understand you know what you think _she_ did, but I think you might be as much of a victim in all this." Gwen was trying the 'it's not you it's me' approach to negotiation.

Jack hung his long smoke blue coat on the old fashioned hat stand and twisted his head from side to side to release the muscles.

"Give me todays conspiracy theory then."

He said going over to the small metal safe in the corner, which wasn't really just a small safe but the entry point to a vast mechanical retrieval system for the most sensitive of information and artefacts. Gwen outlined the case as she saw it, in a very methodical police type manner. She included the parts about the Doctor, which raised an eyebrow, the original work Jenny had undertaken at Torchwood, the change in position and the eventual betrayal leading to the interrogation. She left out the part about Jack signing for her transfer for the moment.

Jack turned back to her with an old fashioned book in his hand, bound in black leather with gold writing on the spine and front cover and the central image of the Torchwood Helix.

"You've heard of the Torchwood Black Book I take it?" he said passing it to Gwen who took hold of it like a hot potato. This fabled tome had been written by Torchwood and given sealed to every military unit in the country, it was supposed to contain instructions on how to destroy every known alien threat – which was in Torchwoods opinion everything of non-earth origin. Friendly or not there was a detailed taxonomy, drawings, internal and external and instructions on which aliens they had to keep for further examination. It was only supposed to be opened when ordered but the Doomsday scenario had never taken place, apart from Canary Wharf, when the ironical thing was the world was saved by public enemy Number One.

"Heard of it, yes, I thought the government had ordered all known copies destroyed after they shut down One"

"No Prime Minister has ever told me what to do." He said gently opening the book a few pages in "Sometimes you need to be reminded how low you can sink." He said pointing at the name of the sub-author "Freda Jones"

"Make no mistake Dr Orange didn't have the mental capacity to string together a sentence let alone a book." He said of the first name on the cover page. "Read what she says, the venom about the Doctor and his companions, she interviewed them all."

Gwen was rapidly patching things together from the morning in the interview room. Jenny had mentioned this work, she had also mentioned this book and how other people had twisted things to fit their own end. As she flicked through the tome there were some excellent drawings of Hoix and a Weevil. The first chapter had pages of drawings of men all numbered as reincarnations and Gwen knew she was looking at the many faces of the Doctor, followed by named faces labelled as companions. It was startling to see a 

near rendition of Martha and someone that could have been Jack, but the hair was wrong. Jack was waiting patiently for Gwen to admit he was right and throw that thing in a cell, whoever had made that book was a sick individual who had devoted a career to systematically tracking down and recording things with the sole intent of destroying them.

Gwen flicked back and forth it was a murders handbook but it only told half the story. She flicked back to the title page to confirm what she suspected. She had to be gentle about this, Jack was about to get a good dose of the truth.

"Jack this isn't all it seems, I think this is all Torchwood spin and they got you."

Jack raised and eyebrow which told her he was about to contradict her so she ploughed on.

"Look at the date Jack, this was published well after she was supposed to have committed suicide she was in the vaults here by then. They were torturing her Jack, not the other way round."

Jack looked confused, over the years his imagination had added layers to the original story he had been given.

"But why would she have all this information?" He asked as if that would prove her guilt.

"I think she was the same as you were before you found your Doctor, just searching for answers. You know this information wasn't just collected when she worked for Torchwood she has been writing bits and pieces for 400 years, they stole it and turned it into something evil." Gwen let the implication hang in the air while Jack digested it.

"Think about it Jack why was Torchwood set up? Your Doctor is, was, an enemy of the crown, they weren't going to make him sound all goody twoshoes now were they?"

Jack sat down, he had to admit that as normal Gwen was making sense in a senseless world. If he thought about it rationally and added all the pieces together, he sighed, he should have trusted his instincts. He had felt a connection 90 years ago, she had tried to help up on the Plass – evil bitches did not try and save people. He tapped his fingers on the old files and chewed his lip before looking up a Gwen.

"I admit there is a possibility you could be right." He said slowly flicking the top few pages.

"So what are we going to do Jack?"

"Well I know what I'm gonna do," said Jack quickly standing up "I'm gonna do lunch" Gwen turned to follow his gaze and saw Ianto carrying three paper bags into the boardroom. He was moving across the room before she asked her final question.

"Then what Jack?"


	9. Chapter 9

Hi Folks, on a roll again, hope you are enjoying this as much as I am. Let me know if you are and happy reading.

Lunch was a strained affair in the board room. Jack was sat at the opposite end of the table to normal, to be as far away from Jenny as possible. Owen had come in ten minutes late, which he did most days now that eating wasn't a pleasure, but watching everyone else was torture. Ianto had been distracted by the extra mouth to feed and hadn't got enough chopsticks and when he came back from the kitchen he had been forced to sit next to Jack, which today was a chore and the atmosphere was so leaden you would need a machete to cut through it. Luckily Tosh was surprisingly good at inane small talk, so had stopped it becoming even worse.

So now they knew that Jenny had been through medical school three times, it being easier to get fake documents before practicing, she had been married four times in 500 years, had lived in France, Germany, a castle on the Welsh Marches, didn't want to talk about what happens when a ship sinks under you and she liked cats. Liked cats so much that she used them as a primitive timing device for how long to hang around before people started noticing that you never took a day off sick, you never put on a pound and didn't age. Get a cat when you move in, when it dies you move on.

"That will be why you were asking about the shelter then?" was the first thing Ianto said in the whole meal.

She nodded "Ginger died about a month ago, ripe old age of 15, to be honest I was beginning to outstay my welcome, people were starting to get a bit suspicious."

"But I thought you came here for the rift?" asked Owen with his normal tact.

"Call it plan B, wait around till it opened. Not sure what I thought I was going to do for a job, getting documents is so difficult these days, perhaps I could just sit back and reap the rewards of past investments."

"Well that explains the dust in the box then." Said Tosh, "I did some tests I wasn't expecting cremated cat." she looked sheepish.

"Frightened it was exploding Fairy Dust?" said Jenny breaking into a smile for the first time. "Can you remember that incident with the Artidium candy at One Jack?" She first looked at Jack who only stared without stopping shovelling the rice in his mouth and then to the rest of the team who obviously didn't have a clue what she was on about. "Oh we had a few things fall through the rift in London long before they built a building high enough to house it, we used to have a patrol went round the docks just before dawn everyday. So one day they come in, such a laugh these two Oxford educated guys with plumy accents dressed as night watchmen giving it the Gor Bilemy Govnors and such like and they produce all these little boxes with different coloured balls in and cartoons all over the box. Well could the boffins decide what they were? Decided in the end they were some sort of sweet, so they fed a few off these balls to some rats and they seemed fine."

Jack looked up, he couldn't help himself he loved telling stories.

"I remember this one, so they tipped them all into a jar and were going to do some more tests because they figured that they had found another source of revenue, sweets from the sky."

"Till someone knocked the jar and mixed the layers of different colours and the chain reaction blew up half of the lab." Finished Jenny laughing so hard she was starting to snort.

"Turns out these things where the explosives and detonators sent through by the Artidium as a precursor to a full frontal attack, only they came through the rift here and turned out to be about the size of garden gnomes!"

Jenny recovered to tell the story, "They sent an advance party through the rift but had plotted the co-ordinates wrongly and should have been taking over a moon across the other side of the galaxy. I can remember them kicking at Mr Fulsomes knees as if it was his fault their map reading was rubbish demanding to be taken to see 'your leader'."

"Problem was Torchwood had as always rushed ahead with the money making scheme and had sold 'Space Dust' to a big sweet distributor and had to start making a fizzing candy from scratch in about six days." Said Jack expanding on every comment with the chopsticks in his hand.

"Mean while the Head Gnome got wind of this and wanted royalties. Whatever happened to the Artidium Jack, I was gone not long after – did they ever get the walled garden in Bournemouth I suggested?"

Jack placed the chopsticks on top of the foil carton and pushed his chair back, his mouth still half full with the last mouthful.

"They disappeared about the same time, never saw them again." He wiped his mouth on a napkin. "We need to talk when you are ready." He swept out of the room.

"Well that's one way to kill the conversation." Said Owen "Not a fan of Chinese?" he asked looking longingly at the carton that Jenny had pushed round the table without really making any mark on the content.

"Not very hungry, I feel really sick actually which is really strange for me, now I know what all my patients have been going on about."

"After what I gave you yesterday I'm not surprised, there aren't too many people up and running round within a week of getting them let alone the next day. Have a rest – doctors orders."

She gave Owen a mock salute and got up slowly, hanging onto the table for balance. She took a deep breath.

"Will he want me to go to his office?"

"I'll take you" said Ianto, pushing another half full tin away.

"God you lot really don't know when you are on to a good thing." He looked at Jenny again "Seriously take a rest, if not come and see me when you are done, I can't promise you Space Rocks but you would be surprised what other sweeties I have."

"Physician Heal thyself." Said Jenny with a smile as she followed Ianto.

Jack was messing about writing something on a whiteboard in the corner of his office, he didn't need to but he was trying to play a psychological game with her. Ianto knocked lightly and Jack turned round as if he had been disturbed he wanted this meeting to be quick, as if he was being interrupted.

"You haven't done much with the place, I could still find my way round here quite easily – not like most government buildings ripped out the original features in the 60s then spend millions putting them back in the 90s."

"We're beyond the government." Said Jack facing her but not going to sit down.

"Do we still bankroll the Government though?" she asked as Ianto bowed out, his coffee service obviously not required.

Jack sighed and moved closer to the desk, "There is no we and that information would be classified."

"I forgot I stopped working here the day they discovered that the 13 years of loyal service were from an untrustworthy alien, I became property instead, do you still own me then?"

Jack realised this couldn't be a quick brush off so he sat down and as an after thought motioned at the other chair. She twitched as she sat down and then scratched at her leg.

"Do you make these to be uncomfortable?" she asked of the overalls.

"I'll get Ianto to get you something more suitable, he has a good eye you know."

"I could tell." She said looking directly at him. The silence hung in the still air as both of them played the waiting game. Jack finally cracked.

"I think I have an apology to make." He said slowly tapping on the files, she looked down and then back at Jack.

"Who for Jack?"

"Well I suppose I am trying to say that what Torchwood did isn't what Torchwood is now." He said pushing the black bound book into the open.

"You can't speak for an institution Jack, you can't change the past, it happened – get over it, move on, I have."

"Well we can change the past but it isn't advisable." Said Jack flashing a smile, he was relaxing a bit as he realised it was going ok.

"Look to the future, it's all we have. I think someone mooted that as a mission statement once, till it was shot down in flames for being untrue, do you ever think they imagined that their meddling would get them all killed? Were you there Jack?"

Jack sat back then opened his desk drawer pulling out a bottle and two glasses, this could take a long time.

Down in the hub work was going on as normal, Gwen was rubber necking to see what she could see in Jacks office but it was difficult without making look obvious. Tosh was working on the algorithm again, until Ianto slipped her a note under her coffee mug. It was an efficient way of passing information that couldn't be traced even in this world of flash monitoring equipment. Put the mug down with the handle to the back of her desk and she knew to slide the mug forward till it was next to the keyboard where there was a white mouse mat, then add a pile of papers above it and a few minutes later sort the pile and make it look like a normal report. She had found out a lot of Owens movements like that plus the gossip she walked in half way through and no one thought she would be interested in.

Gwen gave up and started on the report for UNIT Jack had tasked her with just after Martha had left, it just seemed like work for work sake and her mind wandered to her impending nuptials. She started chatting to Tosh who didn't turn to look at her but carried on working and conversing at the same time, mark of a genius Owen had once commented when Gwen had challenged the fact no one was listening to her.

"So what do you think is happening up there?" asked Gwen generally.

"I don't know, you know Jack he will tell us if we need to know." Replied Tosh even though she was holding a pencil in her mouth.

"It's great this place, you would think that just five people working together for 12 hours a day, occasionally getting shot at, generally watching the world collapse round us would at least know a little about each other."

"Well you found out more about Jack in your first two days than I did in three years, and we still don't know that much, I mean think about it Captain John Hart mentioned a Time Agency but would he tell us anymore?" Secrecy was Toshs pet hobby horse, it even took her gaze away from the screen for a few seconds.

"Do you think we should take her out for a drink, you get to know her a bit more, see what else she remembers apart from exploding gnomes, might give us a clue."

"I don't think the Gnomes exploded, just their sweeties." Said Ianto appearing from no where. He held up a top and jeans for the ladies to approve of before giving them to Jenny.

"You have good taste Ianto, you should come and advise me on shoes for the wedding" said Gwen, Ianto pulled a face, hours sitting in a shop full of white dresses looking at pointy toes or open toes was not a good use of a Saturday, ties on the other hand…

"One of you will need to go out and get some underwear, trawling through racks of undergarments is not my style, what do you need so many different styles for anyway?"

"In my experience most of the styling is done to please men anyway." Said Tosh with the sort of edge to her voice that brooked no argument.

"Should have said Ianto – I would have had some serious fun with that task." Said Owen coming back into the Hub.

Both the girls just rolled their eyes and went back to work.

The conversation in the office had skirted round what had happened in Torchwoods past and been more about the different experiences they had gone through in an ever changing world.

"So you are telling me you have worked for Torchwood for 109 years? Did you never want to move on?" asked Jenny incredulously.

"Well I knew if I hung around long enough I would met the Doctor again, I mean I'd been here with him some time after they built the Millennium Centre and boy what fun that was not to run into myself, so I reasoned that the TARDIS would have to refuel sometime. I just didn't figure the next time would be the time I was here post millenium."

"So you have stayed in Cardiff, with the odd jaunt to fight a war for nearly 150 years, Jesus Jack what a waste."

"Well I feel comfortable here, people don't ask questions I could hide in the shadows and I never had to explain."

Jenny sat shaking her head, the glass of brandy hardly touched as Jack swigged back another glass.

"I would say life is passing you by Jack but it never will. Go out seize the day, live a little. Do all the stupid things that make life a little exciting – meet all the people out there and be amazed at what they can do, don't just sit in this bloody hole. The world will survive without you and we have class one evidence to support that fact." She said raising an eyebrow at the 51st century man.

Jack sat back and contemplated what she was suggesting and looked at the differences in their lives. She had tried to blend in and paid for it by constantly having to move on from people, he on the other hand let people move on from him. Either way the planet and its inhabitants had trouble dealing with them.

"You should give my life a try, you might like it I can always use another team member able to take a bullet with grace."

"Never look back, keep moving forward and Torchwood is so far back I can't even see it." She said going to stand up. Jack motioned for her to sit down, the more he thought about it the better it sounded.

"Look with our combined knowledge and skills we could turn this planet around, I changed all the bad stuff, I made it all in his image." He said sheepishly.

"Look Jack I'll think about it, as I said at lunch it is getting harder to just appear but I have someone waiting on me to see if we can do just that. If I am free to go of course."

Jack swigged back the last of the brandy in his glass and called for Ianto who arrived just a little too quickly with the clothes, she hurried off to change while Ianto cleared away the glasses Jack stared into space.

"Coffee" said Ianto, it was more of a statement than a question.

Jenny took half an hour with Owen before she announced she was leaving and Ianto presented her with her bag, not that it contained very much. Tosh had ceremonially presented the ashes of Tom, her last cat, and she had placed them in her bag before giving her a big hug. Gwen had just hollered at Jacks office.

"Jenny's going Jack and I am taking the Torchwood credit card to buy her some new clothes, call it compensation."

Jack nearly ran down the stairs before nonchalantly putting his hands in his pockets and leaning back.

"You got somewhere to stay tonight know a nice little hotel I can put you up in."

"If it is the same flea pit Torchwood used in the 50s I would rather sleep in a door way, many thanks all the same. Move onwards Jack, I'll be fine."

Jack looked a little sad and Gwen took the cue to go and find her coat.

"Now you know where we are again you can pop in for coffee, I'll be here and the offer still stands if things don't work out."

She reached up and pecked Jack on the cheek, and he hugged her for just a little longer than was socially polite, which didn't go unnoticed by Ianto.

Gwen came back just in time to save Iantos feelings and slipped her arm though Jennys.

"You said your good byes, ready to hit Cardiff with a platinum card?"

Jenny nodded and looked Jack in the eye.

"Have a good life Jack, who knows when our paths will cross again." Jack nodded and smiled.

"Gwen, make sure you come back with some shoes, I think it will cost less if you just buy them rather than waste time I'm paying for looking at them on the internet."

Gwen laughed as the lift started, Jenny had wanted one last overview before she left again and waved at the rest of the team as they watched her go. A blast from the past was good every now and then, it reminded you of the future that waited if you only wanted it.


	10. Chapter 10

Looking out over the Plass Jenny shivered slightly, the drizzle was gone but the air still had a chill and Ianto hadn't given her a jacket. The clothes weren't her style more grungy than she would like and while the jeans fitted on the hips the waist was too big. Gwen stepped off the platform to the slight surprise of a couple sat at what they thought was the bottom of the tower, she pulled Jenny with her as she whistled for a taxi by the Millennium Centre and ordered it to go to St Davids. Jenny also noted that she hadn't shut up in the five minutes since they had left the hub but she hadn't heard a word of it.

As soon as the pavement had closed again Jacks shoulders had slumped and he had turned round to walk back up to his own office.

"Team go home, that's an order."

Owen checked his watch, big wow it was four in the afternoon and getting dark outside and he hadn't left for 48 hours. He grabbed his coat and ran up behind Tosh

"Get your coat love you've pulled"

Tosh turned round with a smile on her face, then she remembered,

"You want a lift home you mean." She said setting the computer running on another complex programme and then turning the screen off so the flickering didn't disturb Jack. Ever since Owen had found sensation difficult it had been decided that driving wasn't the best option for him, as Ianto had pointed out he was likely to kill himself all over again if he hit the accelerator rather than the brake and take someone else with him.

"Well yes that would be an added bonus but you can stop and get pizza and wine for yourself and talk at me for a few hours if you want." He flashed one of his strange smiles.

Tosh picked up her giant bag and fished around for car keys, picking up a DVD case,

"Fancy the new comic book franchise thriller?"

"I have no idea how you get hold of some of these things, in another life you could have been brilliant in industrial espionage."

She smiled nervously at him and then shouted her goodbyes at Jack, passing Ianto with a black plastic sack and both of them mumbling at him. He smiled at them as he always did but they could tell that it was one of his forced ones, just like the weeks after Lisa and not really knowing what to say they both walked a little faster and not looking back till after the garage door had finally locked shut behind them

Ianto watched them pass and smiled as he really didn't want to engage in any sort of conversation with anyone. He didn't think he was a possessive man and anyone one who had been around as long as Jack had to have a past, it was just the way he knew so little about it that occasionally it caught him unawares. He finished clearing up and took the bag to the incinerator hidden in the vaults a simple way to ensure that Torchwood secrets didn't get left in a bin bag on a tip in Merthyr, plus it provided most of the power for the hub via the nifty little alien conversion unit they had appropriated. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned around to find Jack leaning against the doorframe.

"Little jumpy aren't yah?"

"Just wasn't expecting anyone, you seem to have been holed up in your office all afternoon." He said wiping his hands on the towel he had neatly placed there for that purpose and avoiding looking directly at Jack.

"Yes well I had a few things to clean up after that Weevil hunt this morning, can't have Torchwood getting another speeding ticket."

Ianto grunted, speeding tickets were easy to disappear when the car that belonged to the number plates didn't really exist, but it was when that car was clocked at over 150 on the Heads of the Valleys road with all its' twists and turns that took the hard work. Ianto was trapped and he knew it, he had to walk past Jack and through the same narrow doorway and to ensure he didn't get dust and mould on his suit he would have to get close to Jack and he didn't want to do that just at the moment. He needed a little time to think about what it was that was actually bothering him and as soon as they touched he knew Jack would manage to take his mind off it.

Jack watched Ianto as he folded the already folded towel again he was stalling and Jack wanted to know why but experience told him there was more than one way to catch a monkey.

"How do you fancy checking out the new restaurant up on Mermaid Quay later, I feel like I need some normality for a while." He said straightening up and stepping back out of the door way slightly.

"It's vegetarian you know." Said Ianto taking the opportunity to move towards the door.

"Variety is the spice of life." Said Jack following Ianto up the corridor, "Be ready in twenty minutes."

Ianto nodded and turned off to another part of the achieves, Jack thought about following him but decided that discretion might well be the better part of valour and if Ianto needed space well the vaults provided plenty of that.

Ianto stood with his head back against the wall tense for a few seconds till he was sure Jack had left him alone. This was a time for a mind map and the best place to do that was a little room just down the arched passageway, Owen called it the pink and fluffy room where they all occasionally went to chill out. It was the storage space where they put all the things fallen through the rift that seems to belong to children and fun. It was where Tosh had got her super strength Tamagotchi from, Gwen liked all the furry things, though when Jack had pointed out that one she was cuddling like a two year old one afternoon was probably a petrified alien with a distinct crocodilian jaw line she had dropped it like a hot stone. Ianto just liked the fact that this room had some of the normal flotsam and jetsam of growing up in it and wondered what feel through from Cardiff. What did aliens make of Monopoly? He pulled out a small old fashioned looking slate, which of course because it was Torchwood was not all that it seemed. This slate sensed the biorhythms of the person writing on it and only they could see what they had written on it, so it was safe even from Jack – unlike his diary which Jack took great glee in occasionally opening up.

At the appointed time Ianto appeared in the hub and Jack took his arm as they walked out of the cog door, both acting as if nothing had happened. Since his disappearance Jack was much less jumpy about leaving the computers on auto and the rift predictor was getting more accurate as it processed more and more data, tonight it predicted a low probability of rift activity, which was fine until it did spew something through then all the percentages in the world meant nothing. The weather was still a bit unseasonable so they didn't hang around and walked directly to the restaurant, taking a table near the door, so they could leave quickly, and ordering their normal drinks of tap water and a bottle of imported beer. They made small talk over the ordering and through the main meal which seemed to going swimmingly until Jack made some crack about how long it would take Gwen to choose shoes. Ianto tensed up immediately and Jack put a hand over his, getting a dirty look from the straight lace at the next table, and for the first time that night looked directly at him.

"Are you going to tell me what is eating you, or do I have to guess." Said Jack throwing the same foul look back at the Neanderthal on the next table.

Ianto took a swig from the bottle and found it empty, using it as an excuse to remove his hand he signalled to the waitress that he wanted another, perhaps drunk was the way to do this.

"What like I always have to guess with you?" he hissed as the waitress brought the bottle over, Jack stopped her for the bill.

"Finally we get round to what has been eating you all day." Said Jack "Are we going to talk about it or are you going to lock it away?"

"Not here, people are watching." Said Ianto quietly and resolving to make things look normal he slapped down enough money to pay the bill and drained the bottle in one.

"Interesting trick, you've got to teach me that one." Said Jack looking on in amazement and very little left on earth had the power to amaze him any more.

Ianto just started walking and Jack followed two paces behind, stepped onto the secret lift and waited for Jack to step behind him. They didn't touch, which was difficult on a slab that size, and waited while anyone who was really watching would see them decend slowly until they disappeared and a new slab replaced the missing one.

As soon as the stone closed Ianto spun on the spot and turned to Jack,

"Tonight you are going to tell me everything and leave nothing out. I am sick of being caught unawares by your past Jack. I know nothing about you and you know everything about me." He paused as they reached the floor and stopped with a thunk, all this bloody alien technology and it couldn't have a soft stop. "I don't care that I'm not the first and I won't be the last, you know I don't even care that I'm not the only one now, I just hate the uncertainty of what is going to get thrown in my face next." Ianto stepped onto the metal gantry with a thump and stormed off to hang his coat on the hat stand at the other side of the hub, leaving Jack poleaxed on the slab.

At about a similar time Jenny was following Gwen up the stairs to her flat, both of them carrying more than one expensive looking bag, a quick trip to the vast nationals of the St David centre had turned into a wander round the slightly more chic shops of the Victorian Lanes and somehow ended up in the IKEA over the other side of the bay. However Gwen was happy she not only had the new sofa on order she and Rhys had been arguing over but she also had shoes, three pairs actually, two to go with the dress because she couldn't decide which would go best and a pair of boots to go away with. No sneakers on honeymoon, look like a real woman instead of being ready for action permanently. On the journey to IKEA Jenny had been routing round in her bag to find her phone, then realised she had left it with the clothes in the car at the beach head. She should have bought a pay as you go in town.

"I don't suppose I could borrow your phone could I?" She asked Gwen

"Sure" she said also trying to find it at the bottom of her bag, she was so used to using the Bluetooth she hardly ever got it out now it even charged itself with all the energy whizzing round in the Hub. "Who do you need to call?" She didn't even realise when she was being nosey, it was just second nature.

"Oh just a hotel for the night" she said quietly.

Gwen covered her mouth when she had realised what she had done, and in her normal way started to over compensate.

"Oh you don't need to do that, as long as you don't mind the sofa that is, Rhys won't mind in fact he might be out tonight, give us chance to chat a bit eh, we can get a take away."

"Thank you but I wouldn't want to impose, I'll be fine."

"I won't take no for an answer, besides it could be interesting learning a bit more about what went on in London." Jenny smiled and rubbed at her shoulder wondering how Gwen would have got on in the ultra quiet, ask no questions, world that Torchwood had been for her, well until she became property anyways.

"I'll order pizza, if I get it now it shouldn't take too long to get there after we arrive, the local does a very good Hawaiian."

Jenny nodded Gwen was a force of nature that was possibly unstoppable so there wasn't much point in trying. She listened to Gwen ordering the pizza with her Welsh vowels and wondered how much of the Welsh she knew would be understood, thinking about it nobody understood it 300 years ago so why should now be any different. They pulled up at the house that had been converted into flats and went up to the small apartment in the roof space that Gwen called home. Jenny sat down on the sofa, the walk up the stairs had tired her out which was very unusual for her even after a significant injury as her body just repaired and got on with it. Gwen was in the fridge and shaking a bottle of wine at her and she nodded, she sometimes drank it but with little effect, it had been a useful trick in the past to get people to open up to her. Gwen sank down next to her and Jenny knew exactly what she had to do to get a bit of a rest.

"So Gwen tell me about this Rhys chap then."

Four hours, three bottles of wine, two large pizzas and a chocolate sponge from the fridge later Rhys walked in. The women lay giggling on the couch and took little notice as he grabbed a beer and joined them, both of then he noted were even more drunk than he was, respect he thought. The impromptu party had broken up less than half an hour later when Jenny had fallen asleep and Gwen had gone to the airing cupboard to get a spare blanket trying to be quiet and shushing Rhys as he tried to help, even though she sounded like a herd of elephants to the downstairs neighbours. Finally after lifting her feet and covering her gently Rhys had pulled Gwen into the bedroom and closed the door. Firmly.


	11. Chapter 11

My thanks have to go to Judy, as her review reminded me to put the first bit in - otherwise I would have gone rushing off in another direction!!

Enjoy everyone!

Ianto slammed himself down on the sofa, not the cosiest place in the world but it was the only place he could think of where Jack wouldn't completely have the upper hand. Jack wandered over much more slowly and sat at the opposite end, his coat over his knees, Ianto stared directly ahead.

This was so 21st century male thought Jack, no he corrected himself even in another 30 centuries would the less fair of the species ever open up voluntarily. Ianto looked moodily into thin air, his brain was actually racing with questions but all of them seemed to be twee or flippant and sarcasm would not get the answers he needed. As was always the case in situations like this they both started to speak at once.

"Do I have to read your mind?"

"Jack I don't want to pry but…"

They laughed nervously and Jack held out an expansive hand to allow Ianto to go ahead.

"I just so little about you, I could write it all on the back of a postage stamp and you know everything about me, it just seems a bit lopsided in a relationship." He paused, "If this is a relationship."

Jack scooted a little closer but still didn't touch Ianto.

"You don't want to know most of it." He looked directly at Ianto, "My past is chequered, I've been a Time Agent, a con man, a freelancer, a torturer, I don't want to remember most of that and I certainly don't want to burden you with all that."

Ianto sat silently digesting what Jack had said, but his mind kept telling him it didn't matter he still needed to know. He reached over and took Jacks hand.

"I don't care, do you think I am proud of my recent history? I don't want to judge you I want to be able to understand you."

"I've buried a lot of it, the bad parts that make me want to lock myself in the vaults, the good bits that make me want to cry. I can't even remember my family."

Jack looked the saddest Ianto had ever seen him, it made him want to take him in his arms and just leave well alone but he knew that would only make it all worse in the end.

"Our actions and memories make us who we are Jack, you can't go changing the past you keep telling us that and burying things can't help either, just think of me and Lisa by hiding my feelings I nearly killed us all."

"It wasn't nearly for me" he snorted with a slight grin to let Ianto know he wasn't angry.

"Exactly Jack, look at today for instance, by hiding things you mixed them all together and ended up with the wrong conclusion. How far would you have gone if I hadn't read those files?"

Jack sat back and hung his head back over the low back of the couch, the bones snapping back into place with a grating sound that made Ianto wince. For one so young he really did have wisdom beyond his years.

"I promise not to tell anyone and I also promise not to judge." Said Ianto quietly squeezing Jacks hand, which he would swear was shaking slightly.

Sometimes it would be good just to let it all out and share things with someone, just exactly what it felt like to be dragged back kicking and screaming into life but Jack was scared it was just too much to burden anyone else with. Just like he didn't want to explore the reason he hid some of his past even from himself, he was a fixed point in time things revolved around him. He was wrong, the Doctor had told him that. The thought that had been racing round in his head most of the afternoon and early evening was knocking to be heard, he had sat listening to Jenny babble on about all her different lives and thought of all the stories he could tell he had pinched himself until his leg was bruised and he couldn't stop himself from finishing the Artidium story. That had been a good time, the next year was a very bad time. Jack lifted himself back to a sitting position and then unexpectedly curled up against Ianto like a kid trying to forget a nightmare. The Welshman pulled him in tight and shushed him like a baby as he stroked his hair and then pulled his coat over him. Ianto rested his cheek on top of Jacks head and whispered soothing nonsense in Welsh at him until he felt some of the tension leave his body.

"Start at the beginning Jack, leave out the painful bits for now. We'll get through this together."

There was silence and Ianto wondered if Jack was asleep,

"Boshane was beautiful, warm sandy, peaceful except the days they flew over, and mostly they did pass over…"

Gwen woke up the next morning with a banging headache, no the banging was coming from the kitchen. She froze momentarily and then sat bolt upright, nearly breaking Rhys arm that was thrown over her in a sort of drunken hug.

"What you doing?" asked Rhys as Gwen started riffling through her bag.

"Shhhhh." She said putting a finger on his lips and pointing at the door.

Rhys pulled his head back a bit and looked at the clock before looking at the wide eyed Gwen staring intently at the closed door. He made a hissing noise and sat up.

"Don't you remember last night?" he said slightly loudly because that was what happened when he had a hangover.

"Rhys there is someone out there." She whispered dramatically.

"Your mate, god what was her name, Look how much did you have to drink last night?"

Gwen rolled her eyes in concentration for a nano second and the memories of the conversation flooded back to her, she stopped fiddling and sagged the adrenalin that had masked the morning-after head was dissipating. Rhys got out of bed and flung the curtains wide, the bright light making them both shield their eyes.

"She better be making bacon and eggs." Said Rhys padding over to the doorway, his hand was on the handle before Gwens brain caught up with her visual cortex.

"Stop!" she shouted wincing at the noise, Rhys looked at her

"We're late enough as it is." He replied infuriated, Gwen looked at the clock and saw it was nearly 9am.

"Just put some clothes on before you go out there eh love."

Breakfast wasn't bacon and eggs but Jenny had prepared coffee when Rhys had pointed out the jar and had made him toast so he could run out the door, muttering about Danish pastries and the Maccy Ds on the corner of the estate. Gwen had showered in the hope of driving the fuzz out of her brain, but wasn't spectacularly successful. She came back into the living room drying her hair with a towel to find Jenny standing with the bags from yesterday packed and ready to go.

"Well I'll be off too, many thanks for putting me up last night." She said extending her hand.

"Oh, you don't have to go yet do you, look I'll give you a lift wherever you're going if you like."

"You left your car at the office." Jenny pointed out handing over a cup of coffee. Gwen took it and took a sip.

"Oh yes, I forgot, look are you alright after last nights _session_?"

"I'll be fine Gwen, I've done all this before remember." She took a deep breath in, "Clean break start again, reinvent and move on."

Gwen nodded and wished she hadn't, she could almost hear her own thought processes even though the blood was swishing through her ears.

"Look take my number, at least let me know you're alright even if you can't tell me where you are."

In the end they had shared a cab as far as the train station where Jenny had got out with a last hug from Gwen and a promise to call from Jenny. She knew she didn't mean it but thought it would mean she might get way sooner. She had waved as the taxi had disappeared and gone to walk in the station waiting in the impressive ticket hall until she thought that Gwen had gone completely and turned round to get into town. Her head was still fuzzy and she really felt like coffee which was so human and so unlike her, however a quick check of her pockets reminded her she hadn't expected to be doing this so had no money on her at all and no cards with which to get any. She could have screamed at her own lack of planning, she had talked to Tosh about rift activity and found out that while it was more frequent than the 50s it was still unpredictable and could be days between. Besides she was over the whole ending it thing. She stopped walking, partly because she had no idea where she was and also because it was difficult thinking and walking with a head like this. Money, that had to be her top priority, no money and she was stuck in Cardiff for the foreseeable future. The laughable thing was that she was in no way poor, in fact she could probably buy and sell most of Cardiff but as it was mainly held in a nice little facility in Switzerland it wasn't much help.

"Think" she said out loud and getting a funny look from a passer by. She needed to make a phone call, but she didn't even have a coin to use. Not a problem, reverse charge it she thought trying to remember if she knew a reverse charge number. This wasn't her normal thinking process it was so slow and painful, perhaps she should have taken up the offer of a hotel and recovered for a few days. She stumbled into a phone box and stabbed at the phone until the operator answered and realised that the number of her banker, which was seared on her brain like her own name, wasn't there. She stuttered a few times and the operator got shirty hanging up. Jenny leant back against the cooling glass and rummaged in her bag – she knew there was pen in there somewhere and finding it she picked one of the cards advertising ladies services and turned it over and tried to reconstruct the number from her addled brain.

Back in the Hub Gwen had gratefully taken the mug of coffee Ianto had proffered as soon as she came through the cog. Strong with cream, greatest hangover cure in the world he often said, Gwen no longer asked how he knew she was hungover or how in fact he had been ready with the mug when she entered. She took a great sniff of the brew and sank into her chair hoping that in two minutes time she would be able to face the flickering computer screen.

"Gwen I want the expenses sheet on my desk in an hour" shouted Jack, not a little louder than normal, from the gantry, she looked up with a start to find him grinning above her.

"You are a slave driver Jack Harkness, I will take this up with my union." She said putting the mug down and tapping in her password.

"I count unions in the same breath as Weevils and you know what we do with them." Said Jack smiling.

He had to admit it sharing did feel good, not that he has shared that much with Ianto. Sure he had given him the edited version of what he wanted to remember and Ianto had listened until he had decided to stop, Ianto hadn't pushed for more details because he recognised the step forward and didn't want to spoil the progress. As a consequence Jack felt more alive today than he had done in a long time and was bouncing with energy and annoying everyone with his chipper attitude. Tosh and Owen had come in together and been subjected to ten minutes of innuendo and suggestion till Owen had snapped back and started about Ianto. In retaliation Jack had thrown work at them till they groaned under the weight of files and Owen had retreated to the autopsy bay, Tosh took the files and smiled serenely – seething inwardly.

The Hub was quiet as everyone worked, Tosh had come back from looking something up in the achieve and started to chat with Gwen, quickly getting round to the shoes, Tosh smiled wondering how she could be talking about something so inconsequential while working on a paper about the effects of a massive rift flare on Cardiff – not pretty. Gwen finished off the expenses claim and looked at the eye watering figure at the bottom, Jenny hadn't wanted half the stuff but Gwen kept claiming that she looked to good not to have it. Not that cash flow was a problem for Torchwood anyway just Jack liked to pretend that there was some reason to do paperwork like a real office. Most of it went straight into the furnace.

She handed the paperwork over like some naughty school girl and waited for the funny crack or snort of derision, but neither came.

"You going to stand there all day or are you going to sit down?" asked Jack without looking up, adding the paper to his out tray without even looking at it. "Did she get to a hotel ok last night?" he asked looking at her.

"Well no, she stayed at our flat, we had a bit of a session." She said sheepishly.

"You don't say." He said snorting and crossing his arms across his chest. "What more did you find out?"

"Well we didn't really talk about that."

"Oh come on you are telling me that Gwen Cooper did not find anything gossip worthy after a full night of interrogation."

Gwen picked a pencil off the corner of the desk and wangged it at Jacks head, the twisting missile missing him by mere millimetres.

"Oi that could have hit me and scarred me for life, destroying my matinee idol looks." Said Jack flashing the grin that melted hearts throughout 17 galaxies and more time zones than was legal. They dissolved into giggles. Finally when they both regained control Gwen leant forward onto the desk.

"I did learn one thing that I used my police powers of deduction to add to previous information and draw a conclusion." She said mysteriously. Jack drew closer.

"She doesn't know who sprung her from the vaults, but she knows it was an inside job."

Jack raised and eyebrow

"And?"

"Well a few months ago during a rather heated game of truth or dare you did admit to being suspended after leading a break out which felt noble for the first few weeks but less noble when you couldn't afford the rent and couldn't get a job because you didn't exist in the employment records." Jack looked at her

"I did work in the cannery – strictly off the books and boy if I never have to smell fish guts again." He gagged at the thought of it, and as normal when he hadn't been looking for trouble it had found him in the form of alien fish in the mix and had luckily got him back in the Torchwood good books.

Gwen let the two thoughts collide together in Jacks head and then pushed her chair back a bit,

"You see the missing few pages at the end of the file might have been the investigation into the break out, tosh recons the tear was fairly recent – no dust on the edges you see. Funny how things seem to fit together." She said raising an eyebrow.

"I see how with brains like that Cardiffs finest catch so many of the wrong criminals." He said, then realising that she could be offering an olive branch he murmured "Could be I suppose, I wasn't alone that night you know – I just took the fall because I knew Torchwood would still need me. But I did change when I saw what they were doing down there. It all disappeared to One by the time they reinstated me." He took a deep breath in and it momentarily entered his head that Ianto and now Gwen was too much of a coincidence but he trusted Ianto and well Gwen was Gwen and after all that was why he employed her.

Jack looked at Gwen and realised she was gearing up for a friendly interrogation session and that would be too much.

"You know what" said Jack standing for dramatic effect "We need a team building day, howd'ya fancy a bit of sea, sand and…" Gwen put her hand up to stop him before he got any further.

"What? I was about to suggest a bag of chips covered in salt and vinegar and oddles of tomato ketchup." He smiled again.

"You know Jack Harkness I have never known anyone make Barry sound so inviting, even if you are changing the subject. Last one to the SUV has to carry the candy floss." She said leaping to her feet, hangover gone. Jack went to grab her and missed, following her out into the metal landing shouting to everyone to get to the SUV immediately while Gwen giggled down the stairs. Tosh looked at the screens perplexed as to the emergency, Owen gratefully took the excuse to lay down his equipment and Ianto stood quietly in the shadows for a few seconds taking in the difference in Jack when he was happy before entering the Hub and running to the car like everyone else.


	12. Chapter 12

_Hi Folks, This one is a little shorter than normal as I have decided to split the chapter, or you get one long one._

_Glad to know lots of you are still enjoying this one. The reader count tool is really interesting! _

_As the next one is half written it shouldn't be too long in coming._

"Do I have to remind you all of the dangers lurking in those?" asked Owen pointing at the heaving bags of chips held in the hands of the rest of the team.

"You don't but it sounds like you are going to." Said Jack cramming in another fat oily and actually rather delicious chip, smothered in salt and vinegar as promised.

"I can remember days when you wouldn't eat anything else, you would complain about the lacklustre cabbage in the coleslaw like it gave you licence to eat anything bad for you." Said Tosh nibbling on a small piece of fish she had removed most of the batter from.

"Yer thanks for that reminder there Tosh, just what I needed to bring me back to earth." Said Owen suddenly grabbing a chip and throwing it at the sea gulls and watching them fight over it.

"Children this is supposed to be a fun day out, a release from the bonds of the rift and time to chill." Said Jack all reasonable "So the last one to the shooting gallery is a rotten egg." And bounded off to win whatever the showman was offering.

The rest of the team watched him as he ran away from them then Gwen wrapped up the small amount she had left and half ran half walked after him followed by Ianto, who took the much more reasonable step of eating and walking. Owen dropped down onto the bench next to Tosh and threw another chip at the squawking gulls.

They sat in companionable silence for a few seconds before something made an electronic noise in her bag. She went to open it but Owen stopped her.

"Leave it, have some fun, the world isn't about to fall apart."

"How do you know that, it could be the rift monitor telling us Cardiff has been split apart." She said in a reasonable voice.

"Somehow I don't think even you would have the message tone for the end of the world as a mewing kitten." He said holding his hand over hers. "Why so tense, you can trust me I'm a doctor." He left go because he didn't want her to get the wrong idea.

"The last time I was here was with Tommy and the rift alert did go off and the world nearly did end, it did for Tommy." She said in one short breathy sentence

Owen would have whistled a breath between his teeth if he was able, he still felt himself going through the motions. Tommy seemed so long ago but it wasn't really, no one had really wanted to talk to Tosh about it she seemed to cope get on with things like it never happened and that made it easier for them. Of course not long after Owen had problems of his own, that he also didn't want to talk about, and the Hub had kept going as normal.

Owen finally let Tosh go in her bag and check on the signal, only to find it was an email to tell the tourist centre that a parcel had been delivered and left with the box office of the Millennium Centre. Owen laughed as the tension left her face,

"Look I know Tommy was a good laugh and he meant something to you, but that was because he was safe, it wasn't going anywhere, he could never be real. You deserve someone more than one day a year girl." He took her hand and squeezed it as a tear escaped from her eye and she quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand. "My new mission is to find you a bloke – a live one" He added quickly. "I mean look at that specimen of manhood over there, the beer tin finely balanced on that wonderful gut. South Wales finest."

Tosh had to laugh, it had been a long time since she had even been the places you would find a man, work, home, sleep. Since the Mary incident she had even stayed away from the pub by herself mainly looking for the special offers on booze in the supermarket instead. Gwen had Rhys and the bloody wedding, Owen had always had his one night benders which suited him and now even Ianto that had been in love with a half woman half machine had Jack. Now she didn't even have one day next year to look forward to.

"Perhaps I should nobble all the dating websites to send me the details of all the eligible bachelors in the area?"

"That's more like it. Now did Jack mention shooting ranges? I think we should get there before he clears out all the oversize stuffed slightly sinister looking animals and show him who is the best shot." He squeezed her shoulders and then snatched her bag running off down the path shouting at her to hurry up.

"What exactly are we going to do with seven three foot furry gorillas and a blow up sheep?" asked Gwen through a mouthful of ice cream.

It could have been eight but Owen had surprised them all by giving one of his prizes to a little boy who had looked up in wonder at the walking jungle that was Cardiffs finest alien hunting team.

"Myfanwy likes soft stuff for her nest and I am sick of loosing the tea towels to her, so I think we might have a winner there." Said Ianto

"Could give them to the Childrens Hospital." Said Owen, glaring at Gwen as part of the red goo on her ice cream dribbled on his jacket.

"Awwh Owen I never knew you cared." Said Gwen rubbing the stain further into the jacket.

"Well I just thought after the carnage of my little dance with death a while ago they might need some cheering up."

"My God, if I had known death would give you a conscience I would have killed you years ago." Said Jack laughing as he started up the SUV.

"I had a conscience before you came along Harkness thank you very much and can I point out it isn't death that did this too me but you and that bloody resurrection glove."

The air suddenly chilled in the SUV and it wasn't anything to do with the air conditioning. Gwen cleared her throat and looked at the road speeding past.

"So do you do seaside like this in Japan Tosh?" she said to fill the void and break the icy rime forming in the air.

"I didn't know that was going to happen, I just wanted to give you a little time to prepare I know what you go through in the seconds after you die and I thought I was helping you with that."

"Yes well now I get to live, sorry exist, in the knowledge of what is coming to me. Big thanks for that one."

It was like everyone else in the SUV had disappeared and unfortunately as the two protagonists were sat on the same side they were unable to even look at each other, though if they had together they could have stopped the City Hall clock.

"Great so now I get to be like the Great and wonderful Jack Harkness, can I make the same mistakes with impunity like you do?"

The car swerved slightly as Jack turned to look at Owen and there was a collective intake of breath before Iantos hand steadied the wheel from the passenger seat.

"I wouldn't wish my existence on my worst enemy Owen and your case is slightly different."

"I get to die forever you get to live forever. You get to bugger off round the galaxy I get to stay in Cardiff too scared to go anywhere in case I break."

"On the bright side Owen you are unique." Said Tosh brightly. Owen fixed her with his sardonic death stare.

"Well no one else I know has managed to regenerate themselves." She said quietly in explanation

Jack kept his eyes on the road but couldn't suppress his little snort as he thought of a certain time traveller he knew. Neat trick, Jack mused on the fact that if he got better looking every time that happened he would soon have a rival on the looks stake.

"Harkness is off again, hiding his dirty little secrets behind his greatcoat of knowing." Owen looked like a petulant teenager.

The rest of the team kept ignoring Owen while Ianto stole a glance at Jack. He knew he should have insisted on driving, why couldn't Owen keep his mouth shut?

"We all have secrets Owen." Said Jack "Somethings are just too different to go shouting about, it doesn't make them dirty." He paused and then decided to drive the knife in further "Just some of us are better at keeping them then others."

Owen squirmed in his seat, Jack had plenty of ammunition, he seemed to know everything about his past while of course his was shrouded in mystery. Gwen dug a fingernail into his jeans and while the sensation was dull it reminded him of _that_ secret, Tosh saw the small exchange and knew exactly what it meant, she looked out the window.

"Yer till they explode in your face like yesterday. Tell me what was all that about? You really don't like it when someone knows more than you."

Jack turned again but was brought back to the wheel by a collective scream by the living members of Torchwood.

"Bloody leave it Owen, I don't want to die as well." Said Gwen "Get over yourself it never bothered you before so why take it to the extreme now?"

Owen creeped about in his seat again.

"Owen liked her and Jack scared her off" said Tosh still looking out the window.

"No I thought I could work with her, like minds and all that." Said Owen glad that he couldn't blush anymore or he would be scarlet.

"Oh My God, Owen you didn't fancy her did you?" Asked Gwen knowing full well that Owen was deep down a shy man who had used one night stands as a cloak for his reluctance to get into a deep relationship, only Jack knew why that was.

"No she was just interesting, physiology, she was really good on the history of medicine too." He sounded as if he was making it up on the spot and he knew it.

"Well it sounds as if she has lived through most of it" said Ianto without looking back.

"Pretty good on the history of Torchwood too." Said Gwen cryptically.

Owen was spared any more interrogation by the fact they were coasting in the garage and everyone wanted out of the boiling pot as quickly as possible.

"Well does everyone feel more like a team now?" asked Ianto quietly when he thought he was out of Jacks hearing range Gwen and Tosh just giggled and went back to the Hub while Jack called out to Owen.

"Save the lecture Jack, I'm a naughty boy questioning the greatness of Captain Jack Harkness and I will spend the evening beating myself with birch twigs." He stood with one hand on his hip in an insolent pose that really should have rubbed Jack up the wrong way but all he really felt was pity.

"I've asked you before and I will ask you again, how long is this going to go on Owen?" he paused for an answer that never came, Jack started to walk away leaving Owen stood looking at the Porsche he had driven to work one day some weeks ago and was never going to drive again. "When you are ready come and talk, I'll be there." He said simply.

Of course a day off was never a day off for Torchwood and Toshs screen flashed with the activity that the Rift had bandied about in the past six hours. Nothing of note apart from a small amount of meson energy hanging round a small allotment in the north of the city. Probably an artefact spewed forth and dropped so far out of its time and place that it would never be used again.

"I'm on it." Shouted Ianto and grabbed the SUV keys from Jacks hand and running straight back to the vehicle before he could suggest doubling up.

Owen slunk back in like a scolded cat and looked for Gwen.

"You get to take me home tonight" he said as he passed her. She was on her mobile and waved at him to keep quiet while she listened to her messages. Hissing as she got to the third message from Andy begging her to come to the Police Station she checked her watch and found it was only a few minutes old.

"Can't you walk?" she asked as the honest truth was she didn't want to be in a confined space with him, not after what just happened.

"Look it's raining and I live five miles away, it'll only take you a few minutes, please Gwen I don't like begging."

"But still you do. Fine but I have to go via the police station Andy wants something."

"If ever a man was made for one of those pointy helmets." Said Owen quietly

"Oi I heard that, Andy is my friend and if you want a lift you like it or lump it."

Owen kept his peace and waited while Gwen repacked her bag and checked that there was nothing else doing. She waved at Jack who was just watching over the barrier – one of those moods she thought hoping Rhys fancied a good night in to forget today and went back to her car, leaving Owen to trail behind.


	13. Chapter 13

After negotiating the exit from the garage Gwen turned towards the city and moved into the late afternoon traffic. It was only a short journey to the station and Gwen parked in the yard that had for so long been her place of work.

"Will you be alright in here for a while?" asked Gwen who wasn't really bothered but didn't feel like she could just walk out of the car.

Owen reached into his bag and pulled out a file and started leafing through it. Gwen raised an eyebrow

"Jack will do his nut if he finds you with an official file outside the base."

"Well what Jack doesn't know won't hurt him and I have permission from the subject." He paused and looked directly at Gwen. "You know I did actually mean it when I said I didn't think we should have let her go so easy, I mean when do you actually get to talk to a real live alien that doesn't want to rip your throat out? And she might have been able to fill in the gaps in Torchwood history" he said with a knowing glance.

Gwen slammed the door, messing around with the past didn't seem like a good idea. That thought was brought into sharp focus as some of her old colleagues struggled past her with one of the local criminals. She smiled and waved at them though they were too busy to wave back, give me a Weevil any day, she thought smiling to herself. After many more smiles, waves and pointless platitudes she ended up in the custody suite where Andy was just coming back from adding the last piece of human scum to the list of inmates.

"Glad you could spare the time, I've been ringing you all afternoon, too important to answer now are we?"

"Nice to see you too Andy, yes I've had a lovely day at the seaside and I'm sorry I didn't instantly jump to it." She said pouting.

Andy looked at her and then collapsed on the desk,

"Yer sorry Gwen, bad day. Some idiot took a swing at me on Saturday night and I ended up in casualty so they put me on light duties, they call this light you know."

Poor old Andy, thought Gwen, always on the receiving end of the flack. Back in the days when she had been out on the beat with him fellow officers had made a beeline to be partnered with him as he always went in first and got the punch.

"Sorry to hear that Andy, did it effect your writing hand too?" asked in her innocent voice

"No it was a concussion, look I've got a lump on the bad of my head the size of an egg."

"So the reason you haven't replied to my wedding invitation is?"

"Well I don't know if I'll be working, a Saturday there's bound to be a rugby match on and you know what the sarge is like on rugby days."

"And you think Rhys would organise his big day at the same time as he could be drinking beer and shouting at Gareth Thomas? Oh come on Andy it would make me happy to have my friends wishing me well."

"Well I am sure you will have you new friends, the tall one with the coat and the little sneaky looking one." He had the grace to look a little sheepish after that comment and fiddled with a few bits of paper on the desk.

Gwen would have walked out at that point but he had called her for a reason.

"So why did you drag me here? And how did you get that number, that's my Torchwood mobile that is."

"So you give that number to any old soak in the street but I have to make do with the _emergency_ number and get the sarky one telling me unless the sky is about to fall in never to call again."

"What are you going on about now" she asked starting to get a little scared, there obviously wasn't a Weevil or another Centurion in the cell so what the hell was he going on about.

"Cell five, get a call just after lunch about some sort of commotion at the pawnbrokers on Saint Martins Row some drunk trying to pawn a ring that was worth a mint, had no ID with them and wouldn't take no for an answer. So they dragged her back down here and we gave her a bed for the afternoon but the curious thing is we can't find any reports on this ring being stolen, stunner it is."

"And this involves Special ops how Andy, really I don't have time for this." She was standing with her hands on her hips looking just a little menacing thought Andy, how times had changed from those shapeless police issue wool trousers.

"I'm just getting to that bit and not everything revolves round you precious Torchwood. Went through her bag to get some ID as she wasn't making any sense by the time they got her back here and the only thing in there is your name and phone number, so I thought you might be able to help. Glad I called you now are you?" asked Andy to what was the quickly retreating form of Gwen Cooper.

The penny had dropped with an almighty clatter, she started taking the familiar route to cell five with Andy shouting about not being allowed back there any more. Jenny should have been on a train to London where she was going to sort out some documentation and then get the Eurostar on the first part of the journey to Geneva. Why was she trying to hock a ring in a pawnbrokers in Cardiff at lunch time? And how was she drunk, she had told her she didn't drink much by herself as it didn't touch the sides before her efficient body metabolised it. She skidded to a stop outside the cell and dropped the small communication hatch shouting out her name and getting no response, she tried again as Andy came up with a large bunch of keys, dropping them in his haste and earning himself a good cursing in the process. Muttering something about there being no fire he swung the heavy metal door open and let Gwen in. She rushed to the figure curled up on the bench, the body language radiated pain but as she was facing the wall Gwen couldn't tell if she really was just sleeping off a hang over. She touched the shoulder and instinctively pulled it back as she touched the warm, damp patch of blood.

"Jenny can you hear me?" she asked in hope and didn't get a reply, she gently pulled the hair that had fallen across her face out of the way to check that she was still breathing. Her skin was ashen grey and covered in sweat, trickles of blood ran in bright red rivulets from both nostrils.

"Shit, shit, shit," said Andy loudly as he realised that this wasn't just a drunk and he had failed to check properly since he had got upset that Gwen wasn't answering her phone. "I'll ring for the doctor."

Gwen reached back and just caught a handful of clothing as he ran from the cell.

"No, I can deal with this from here." She tapped her ear piece and got Owen immediately

"Your wish is granted Owen, get your boney arse in here now and earn your money."

"What?" said Owen confused

"Jenny is in a cell and bleeding from every where you can loose blood from" she said trying to remember about recovery positions and ABCs

Andy Stood perplexed at the doorway

"This isn't one of your spooky dos Gwen, you can't just get your friends in this is police business this is."

"Andy you would never believe me even if I told you, now go and show Owen where to come unless you want to wait three hours for the police surgeon to find his arse from his elbow and get here."

She had a point thought Andy and he supposed that the snarky little one probably had some sort of medical training, well he hoped, and he might just get him out of a very deep hole. Gwen cooed and spoke softly at the prone figure, she never knew what to say to someone who didn't respond. Suddenly she thought of all those hours she sat holding Jacks cold dead hand after the Abbadon, then not a day later he up and left without a by your leave.

Owen came into the cell with the medical kit he always seemed to have at hand, he called it small but it took up most of a rucksack and contained everything from needles and plasters to anti toxins and Weevil spray. She took a step back before Owen pushed her out of the way, medics were always like that caring and sharing but they treated their patients like lumps of meat. The only he could cope he had once told her. He looked at her face and then took her pulse quickly, why hadn't she thought of that and satisfied that there was still life in her he tried waking her a little more roughly than Gwen but with the same lack of response.

"Help me turn her over." He said to the room at large even though it was actually directed at Gwen. Andy however barged past and Gwen remembered his pseudo-chivalrous attitude to what men and women could do. The movement must have caused some pain as it elicited a response from Jenny which Owen pounced on tapping her lightly on the face at first and then rubbing viciously on her chest with his knuckle till her eyes opened.

"Quickly tell me what is happening to you." Owen had learnt over the years that patients of an alien variety often knew more than he did about their own conditions, however much he would deny the fact to Jack.

"What sort of medic are you to ask the patient their diagnosis?" asked Andy indignantly as Gwen pulled him back to let some light fall on her face.

"Reaction" she wheezed between short, painful breaths. Owen motioned at Gwen to get the oxygen out of the bag but she was already on it.

"Blood, you gave me your blood" she managed as Owen pulled open her shirt exposing the reopening wound in her shoulder.

"I'm sorry I didn't know." He said waving the oxygen mask over her face but not securing it as he needed to hear her talk. "What do I now to make it better?" he asked hoping that there was something as he genuinely felt bad about what was happening, he had rushed ahead to prove how good he was when they had dragged her into the medical room so her death would be on his hands.

He did what checks he could with one hand from where he crouched down until she could answer again, there was blood on the bench from her nose and ears, a trickle coming from the side of her mouth, obviously a larger patch from the shoulder and finally a circle of red forming on her hip, just where the bruise had been. He pulled at the top of the trousers she wore to expose the area and got a pain response as his fingers touched the raw and bleeding skin, if he had still been alive he would have thrown up he thought as he looked down on the Torchwood symbol branded into her skin.

Gwen had been efficiently passing him pads to cover the wounds until she saw the symbol. Andy who had been standing like a lemon in the doorway agonising between leaving them to it and running to get the desk sergeant gasped too.

"Are you marked as Torchwood property too?"

"Drop it Andy or so help me God I will make you forget you ever knew what Torchwood might even be." Snarled Gwen quickly covered up the offending mark

"Would help if I knew in the first place." Said Andy petulantly

Owen stroked Jennys head for a second or two, his faith in mankind suddenly knocked out of kilter.

"I'm sorry, they did this didn't they, tell me what to do, I don't want to make it worse again." He murmured half aware that Gwen was trying to raise Ianto in the SUV to get them.

"No time Gwen we have to go right now."

She nodded and knew there was no point in asking questions about how that could happen in a Saab.

"Tell me what her pulse feels like." He said realising how much he had come to rely on the scientific instruments of the Hub over the last few week.

"Weak, very fast and really faint." She said after a few seconds.

He pulled out a plastic bottle of saline

"Jenny is this going to harm you?" He asked knowing he was only going to get answers to direct questions. Weakly she rolled her head to indicate it wouldn't and Owen took the needle placed it straight into the vein in her neck. Andy had to leave the cell.

"Oi Plod get back in here I need you now." Shouted Owen and when he came back in shoved the bottle into his hand, "Save the PC case PC and squeeze this."

Thoughts were racing through Owens head about what he would do normally and what he could do now, the only thought that won was that the Hub was the only place he could deal with this. With Andys reluctant help they half dragged half carried Jenny from the cell while Gwen pulled her car as near the door as possible. Owen settled her in to the back seat as Andy called to Gwen urgently.

"Gwen you can't do this, there's paperwork and everything."

"Don't worry Andy shred everything you have on the case and Torchwood will do the rest."

"You can't just disappear a suspect like that." He hissed.

"Trust me, it will be fine." She soothed and ran back to the drivers door, looking round as Andy shouted and threw something at her.

"I don't think we should disappear this." He said throwing an evidence bag with the ring across the roof of the car.

"Wedding Andy" was all she said as she slipped into the car and gunned the engine.

She looked back at Owen crouched in the back foot well and pulled forward willing the heavy metal gate to open a little faster.

"Gwen, you've got to drive like Jack" said Owen simply as she opened up the engine.


	14. Chapter 14

The traffic was quite heavy but Gwen seemed to keep the car moving for the short journey through the city. She was assisted by Tosh who monitored the traffic flow while simultaneously trying to find Jack and Ianto. The latter was now across the other side of the city after wading into a pond to retrieve another unidentified metal block with alien particles on it. He had started the conversation by complaining about the pond weed on his shoes till Tosh had explained the situation. The SUV could affect traffic flow to suit itself if Ianto set the automatic filters. Jack however was AWOL somewhere in the underground labyrinth having gone down there not long after Owen and Gwen had left, putting his comms pointedly down on the desk.

Gwen was on the home stretch and motoring into the garage at a speed not recommended by the council who thought they owned it. Tosh pressed the override to the back entrance which was normally on a delay and the Hub lit up with flashing lights and alarms, should find Jack she thought. Gwen hated this bit, she knew that the end wall of the garage was only partly real and that the bit over the roadway was a very smart hologram and she knew because she had a transponder on her car that the barrier on the other side had raised automatically and she knew it was fine but crashing through a pretend wall wasn't her cup of tea. She braked furiously knowing the _real_ wall was only a few metres behind it and turned the car with a squeal of wheels as she passed through the harmless barrier.

"We'll make a stunt driver of you yet PC Cooper." Said Owen from the back.

Gwen ran round and pulled open the door of the car as Tosh ran into the garage. Where was the Torchwood muscle when you needed it she muttered earning a slightly hurt glance from Owen who had always been more athletic than body builder. Carefully they lifted Jenny from the car and onto a blanket on the floor, every movement seeming to cause more pain than the last.

Owen knelt on the floor as the women looked on nervously until the silence was dramatically shattered when Jack burst through the open door with his gun held in both hands. Gwen screamed with the shock and some automatic part in Toshs brain sent her reaching for her own gun to find it not there, she was the only one in the team that preferred not to carry it unless she was on the sort of mission that needed it. Jack took in the scene, counted his team members and realised the only person missing was Ianto, with his heart in his mouth he holstered the gun and his eyes dropped to the floor, he could have sagged with joy when he realised that the figure on the floor wasn't the missing team member. He joined Owen on the floor and took in the blood and general pallor,

"What happened?" he said simply as he stroked the hair out of her eyes.

There was more blood now, old wounds were reappearing like some alien version of scurvy, her hands were covered in scratches and there were small cuts on her face.

"Blood, I gave her human blood and now it's reacting with whatever flows through her veins Jack and it's killing her. I've killed her."

Jack looked at Owen, it was rare he admitted defeat but when he did he normally meant it. Jennys right hand started moving and she was trying to talk, Jack took her hand and came close to her face to hear what she was saying.

"Not the end, like before, remember?"

Jack repeated the words to the group out loud, hoping they would make more sense of it. Her eyes were beseeching, Owen took one last look up and down before making his decision.

"We have to get her downstairs, I can't do anything here."

He motioned for each of the girls to grab a corner of the blanket but before they could get there Jack had swept Jenny into his arms like some latter day Rhett Butler and was carrying her gently through the door. Owen followed behind tutting at the act of heroics but he admired the style. He dodged ahead and swept the used coffee mug from the autopsy table. With infinite care Jack and Owen laid Jenny down, apologising for the cold metal and while Jack talked in a low soothing voice Owen flicked the computer onto the scanning settings that suddenly displayed on the wall and they didn't please him. Tosh and Gwen ran into the bay and were quickly sent by Jack to find blankets and pillows as Jenny was shivering violently.

"Jack it isn't the cold, in fact her core temperature is slightly above normal." He stopped himself and clarified the sentence "Human normal, it's shock her body is shutting down, gotta be." Said Owen in his matter of fact way as he scanned the numbers

"Then fix it." Snapped Jack

"Cold, good, very cold" said Jenny trying to control her own body as Jack looked on with the face of a helpless puppy

"I don't know how Jack, there is no Hayes Manual for unknown alien species, Hell she doesn't even know where she comes from herself."

"And she is still in the room Owen." Said Gwen returning and throwing a blanket over Jenny but she was pushed aside by Jack as he fussed round ensuring that she was covered and comfortable.

To give himself more time to think Owen picked up his pen torch and started doing a few more tests, pushing Jack out of the way. Her eyes followed Owen round the room, her breathing had settled but there was still a thin trickle of blood coming each nostril and her tear drops had a small tinge of red to them. He seemed satisfied with his light waving and turned back to the screens, things were getting worse, it was only slight but in two minutes it was a big change.

"What did you mean like before?" asked Jack

Jenny tried to talk and Owen nodded at Jack as he motioned to take the mask off.

"I survived" she smiled and took a few small painful breaths, "they wanted to make

invincible humans because they wanted more of you."

A spasm of pain pulled her face out of shape and the little colour left in it drained. Owen pulled the mask back over her nose and mouth and squeezed the saline to try and add a little pressure, give him more time to work this out.

"Does anyone understand?" he asked the team who were stood round the rails

"Understand what? Asked Ianto skidding to a halt and coming up short when he saw the patient. Tosh quietly brought him upto date.

"The file, that has what happened before, has anyone looked at that?" Asked Ianto looking directly at each of them, the lack of reply told them that Ianto was right again and he started back into the Hub thinking he would find the file in Jacks desk. Owen called him back and sheepishly pulled the file out of the back of the rucksack, he got a sharpening of the eyes from Ianto but Jack wasn't even looking. Ianto ran back to Toshs desk as the nearest and cleanest to start looking for a clue. Owen drew some blood and held it up to the light, instead of being red and opaque it was more straw in colour with a small swirl of red running through it.

"Tosh can you run the analysis?" asked Owen wondering what was keeping her alive.

She came down and took the vial and listed a number of tests which Owen wasn't really listening to anyway but just nodding. He was watching Jack as he gently cleaned round the cuts and grazes, muttering lightly and looking directly at her most of the time as if the eye contact would keep her alive all by itself. Owen motioned at Gwen to come down into the pit and with a swift motion of the head tried to make her understand he needed rid of Jack. She walked behind him and rubbed his shoulders, a motion familiar to him, he turned and looked at her with mournful eyes.

"I did this, I was part of it all." He said quietly.

Gwen hugged his waist and looked up at him

"No Jack this was old Torchwood, you changed it for the better."

If eyes are the window to the soul Jacks laid bear his whole existence at that moment in time, it nearly broke Gwens heart.

"Why don't you make some coffee for everyone, I think this could be a long night." Said Owen picking up a pair of cloth cutting scissors. Jack shook his head and stroked Jennys hair.

"Jack piss off and give us some room." Said Owen simply "Gwen will help me make her more comfortable, I'll call you when we're done."

"We could take her down to the medical room." He said with a quiet strength that would normally be listened to

"The equipment is better here." What he actually meant was the alien stuff and all his personal experiments were up here and all the stuff downstairs was a little more conventional. Gwen stroked Jacks arm as he kissed the fingers of his right hand and placed them on Jennys cheek between the welts lingering just a little as she looked directly at him. Without a word he walked out of the pit and towards the Hub.

Ianto was flicking quickly through the early pages of the old report trying to find anything that could help, he had to admit they had really gone about this scientifically with anything and everything recorded in bland impersonal language. He was starting to get into the darker parts when he heard a noise behind him. His brain sorted through what the sound could be as he turned round, a scraping sound but something soft. The sound nagged at his brain for a few seconds till he realised he wasn't concentrating on the page, he stood up to get a better view in the direction of the sound and saw Jack crumpled at the bottom of the wall his arms covering his head. Instantly Ianto started across the floor softly calling his bosses name with no response. He sank down the wall in the same way that Jack had, his suit jacket making the same noise and touched his shoulder. It gained no response and he tried saying his name again and in response Jack started to rock slightly

"Go away, make it go away." Repeated Jack over and over though it was muffled as his head was tightly held against his raised knees.

Ianto first thought the comments were aimed at him but when he kept repeating himself he started to get worried and tried shaking Jack without much affect. He crawled round to be in front of Jack, his hand never leaving his shoulder, and started peeling his arms away from his body but each time Jack just pulled back.

"Jack" said Ianto sharply "Jack you're scaring me, what's wrong, let me in Jack, tell me so I can help." Jack scrabbled away and turned towards the wall taking a deep and wracking gasp of air.

Ianto was at a loss for what to do and started to move so he could see round the wall to the autopsy pit and call Owen but Jacks strong hand shot out and grabbed the front of his shirt pulling him in so close that for a second Ianto couldn't breath. He soothed Jacks hair and rubbed his back while Jack rocked slowly until some of the tension dissipated.

"I'd blocked it out, 50 years I've not thought about it, I was a monster, I told them what to do, helped them and I thought I'd made it right then I blocked it all. I didn't learn I did it with Suzie and now someone else is suffering and it's all my fault."

"Jack it was the blowfish, it was Owen not understanding, it was her own desire to save you, to give everything upto save another life it wasn't you."

Jack pulled his head away from Ianto and looked him directly in the eye.

"The torture, those cuts on her hands, her face, everywhere I told them exactly where to inflict the most pain, I did that to people, people Torchwood told me were enemies, I was the go to guy Ianto."

Each phrase seemed to cause pain to Jack and as he shut his eyes he could see all the creatures again lined up pleading for it to stop, the images caused his skin to creep and the sudden movements caused Ianto to hold him even tighter.

"Let me get Owen." Said Ianto trying to get loose to be able to call him.

"No I caused so much pain I deserve to remember this is my punishment."

"Jack you aren't mentioned in the notes, perhaps you are remembering the wrong thing. How could you forget a thing like that, even retcon doesn't blank that much out without punching great holes in your memory."

"It wasn't retcon, it was something the Time Agency taught us how to be selective but you have to remove any trigger anything that you could connect or it comes back just as fresh as if it had just happened. It is a bit like a mental perception filter." Something else crawled into his consciousness he shuddered grimacing and paddling his feet against the metal work.

"So why didn't seeing her the first time trigger this?" asked Ianto trying to process all the information and hold it together for himself and Jack.

"I never saw the faces, that was my one rule, I did it because when I didn't they would cut me out, I once spent two years waiting for them to call and I always went back because they had information on the Doctor, I needed to know when he would be back so they would cover the faces and I would do what I was told."

Ianto was start to pull together some of the things that Jack had said over the past few days and realised that the strange reactions were as if he was doing the opposite of what he would normally do.

"So is that why you've been acting so strangely, some sort of response to this secret?"

"Think of it like peeling away the layers of an onion, like something you see in the corner of your eye, then it moves into your central vision and finally does a full striptease to hit you wham."

Ianto pulled Jack closer, when he had asked him about his past he hadn't thought of the consequences of things that he didn't want to remember.

"Was it me dredging your past that released this?" he said quietly.

Jack responded by shaking his head and burying it in Iantos chest with a quiet howl of pain.

"No first I went digging in the archives, then I saw her face, just like the last time I saw her, the only time I saw her face, the glass, there was nothing I could do the only way was to smash the glass and it fell on her face. She was so close to death she didn't move even as we dragged her into the dockyard, I didn't think she would survive."

It wasn't making sense to Ianto,

"Where did the glass come from, I'm not following you Jack, help me understand."

"It was Polly that showed me the truth, it was nearly 100 years since I had landed back on earth from the game station, I started to believe them, the Doctor was an enemy. She knew the truth behind the Doctor, she travelled with him too, she used the fact that I wanted more information on him to get to know me then she made me see the reality of what I was doing, how he wouldn't want me to do this." Jack looked directly at Ianto, "I refused to do their dirty work anymore but they just brought someone else in. So we decided if we couldn't stop them doing this we would have to take away their playthings. We planned for weeks but someone found out and we had to move early, we could only save a few. What happened to the ones we left behind?" he screwed his eyes shut again as if it could cut the pain out but the images started again.

Ianto had no idea what to say or what to do next, Jack was the one that coped for everyone else, practical and strong he was the voice of reason. Ianto could guess what had happened to the others and when all this was over he would take Jack and find out so he could lay the ghosts to rest but he needed to get it together now.

"You did what you could Jack, you can't save everyone." That didn't sound like it had in Iantos head even though it was true it was very harsh. "Lets concentrate on what we can do now."

There was a long silence as Ianto waited for Jack to make the next move, with shaky hands he pulled some folded papers from his back pocket.

"This is what they did, what I did."

Ianto took the papers, torn down one edge as if they had been pulled from a file in a hurry. Making sure to keep some contact with Jack he quickly read through the missing pages of the file now sitting on the desk. It was the investigation into the missing "Artefacts" released by person or persons unknown. The lead investigator was named 'Freelancer JH' who seemed to lead a thorough investigation to nowhere and was replaced after two weeks by 'Special Agent TV' who found his way after a few days to a recently and hastily abandoned hideout behind one of the meat production sheds, accessed through a freezer. His conclusions stated that there was still inside help and that the investigation had been compromised by shoddy work by the freelancer and retraining was required.

Ianto had seen enough for now, he had to do for Jack what he had done for him more than once and remind him of the here and now. He took a deep breath through his nose and grabbed Jack roughly by the shoulders.

"Snap out of it Jack" he forced his head up so he had to look at him "Here and now that's what matters, are you going to get up and walk in there and be there for her. I've seen how she looks at you, she doesn't blame you for anything." Ianto stood up pulling Jack with him which was no mean feat when he was acting as a dead weight. He took his perfect white handkerchief out of his back pocket and wiped at Jacks face like a house-proud mother, pulled his rumpled shirt straight and stood back nodding. Jack cuffed at his face and took a deep breath.

"I'm proud of you Jack, here and now is what matters, we need you Jack and never forget it." He finished the sentence and moved forward his lips hitting Jacks with explosive force, reminding him what there was to fight for.


	15. Chapter 15

"Owen, it's some sort of chemical reaction, I don't understand it fully but I think it has something to do with iron." Tosh pushed the papers from the various instruments at Owen pointing out the differences in the blood work he had taken just after the accident and those more recent tests. Owen studied the numbers flashing up on the wall umming and arring at various things that Tosh couldn't fit into her understanding. Quietly Jack and Ianto slipped back to the railings, having seen Tosh rush past had slightly sobered Jack and a good brush down and a few well chosen peppy words had given him the strength to return to the problem in hand. His brain had started sorting the things he could change now from the things to deal with later and this time he knew he would have to face them.

"Let me run this past you Tosh because I need to get this straight, the iron bound in the haemoglobin is somehow reacting with the stuff that looks like blood that she has and is causing some massive reaction which destroys her oxygen carrying cells?"

Tosh couldn't decide if Owen was being sarcastic or really couldn't comprehend that she had just said all that, granted she had used the proper chemical reactions and had lost everyone when she took a whiteboard marker to the wall to explain the full chemical equation but was it really that difficult for a trained professional to comprehend?

"Yes and I think the heat from the reaction is pushing up her core temperature and causing further damage to the immature cells her body is producing to replace the ones she is loosing." She clarified.

"Fascinating" said Owen quietly his arms crossed in front of him as his tapped his chin in true nutty professor stance.

"Fascinating Owen but can you do anything about it?" asked Gwen pointedly

Owen spun round like he had been touched with red hot poker and paused for a few seconds, inside his head he had a film playing of the last time he had seen Katie being wheeled away in a time when he trusted the things he saw in front of him.

"Yes there is, but it can only stop that reaction, it isn't some magic wand that is going to make her all well again." The despair in his voice was audible.

Jenny started coughing, a rasping, hacking cough that sounded as if she was trying to expel half a lake, Gwen who was still sat holding her hand looked horrified as Owen ran the other way. He threw open the metal drugs cabinet and started pulling out small bottles, snarling as he found each one wasn't the one he really wanted, when he finally found the one he needed he quickly looked at the mess he had left and wondered why Ianto wasn't clucking at his lack of tidiness. As he drew the liquid into the syringe he saw Ianto sat on the stairs flicking furiously the old file, Jack had swooped past him and was helping Gwen sooth away the coughing with little success. Owen stabbed the IV bag and pushed the liquid in quickly before turning away again to fill the syringe up from a larger bottle

"Physician heal thyself." Said Ianto excitedly

"Really don't need pseudo-religious platitudes at this moment Tea-Boy" snapped Owen as he flicked the air out of the syringe.

"No she has been giving us the answer, cold. After each of these experiments they took her back to a cell where the ambient temperature was barely above zero, I should have seen it before."

"So the cold slows the reaction down and gives the immature cells a more stable environment" started Tosh

"While protecting the body and brain from any further damage." Finished Owen, "Brilliant"

Owen took the needle and pushed it in the IV port on her hand that seemed to make the team less squeamish than the one into her neck and waited 20 seconds for the large dose of adrenaline to kick in. Truth be told Owen wasn't at all certain this would go his way but he needed to get the previous drug round her body to neutralise the iron, he looked at the numbers and was pleased to find he had found the lucky side of the coin he just flipped, not that he would ever admit it, except perhaps to Tosh when she was drunk and he thought she wouldn't remember it.

"So we freeze her and stick her in the vaults for a few days." Said Tosh just a little too brightly

Owen fixed her with a stare that would have pleased Ianto,

"Brilliant hypothesis Dr Sato but one fatal flaw," Owen saw Gwens arm fly out to make contact with him for his crass remark but he was just too far away to let her strike home. He made another scan of the numbers and motioned for the old notes from Ianto.

"The technology behind the vaults puts bodies into stasis, nothing happens to them so we could stop the reaction and pretty much everything else."

The coughing had stopped and Gwen and Jack gently laid Jenny back towards the high stack of pillows, some colour coming back to her face but Jack had seen it all before, too many times. The synthetic effects of the drugs would mask the true symptoms for a few minutes then the end came fast and hard. He had wondered in one of his many introspective musings whether they speeded things up or if the drop from the plateau of better health just made it look like that. He gripped her hand hard, that one he had learnt from personal experience – the sensation disappeared from your hand first as the blood rushed back to the bodies core. There was a little more peace behind the heavily dilated pupils and the fight for breath wasn't so obvious but still her eyes moved steadily between Gwen who was muttering and wiping her face and Jack who stood on the other side of the bed.

"What about those Russian guys, they freeze people for hours while they operate." Said Gwen suddenly, they all looked at her as if she had gone mad, Jennys eyes fixed on Gwen. "What? I watched some late night documentary on it when I was waiting for Rhys to come home."

Owen reached over and kissed her right in the middle of the forehead.

"When did you get so clever Gwen Cooper?" asked Owen rhetorically

"Ok reality check here what are you talking about?" asked Jack tearing his eyes away from Jenny and fixing Owen with his most piercing stare, the type that followed you through walls.

"Hypothermia, induced hypothermia, cool the body down and it slows the rate of, err" what he wanted to say was decay but even to Owen that sounded a bit gruesome when your patient was laid in front of you, "Well preserves the tissue." He recovered.

Owen came round to face Jenny, blocking Jack, and spoke directly to her,

"Is this what you have been trying to tell us, is this the solution?" he asked but the light was fading from her eyes again, this one was going to be his call.

"No" said Jack forcefully, "Do you know how incredibly painful hypothermia is and do you even know if it will work?"

"No to the first because while I might be dead Jack I don't delight in seeing how many different ways I can scare the shit of my nearest and dearest and for the second all I know is that doing nothing is not an option."

"Is there nothing else?" Jack asked in despair "You said you could stop the reaction."

"Jack." Said Toshiko quietly behind him "The damage has already been done Owen can only stop it not reverse it."

"I think that a small amount of hope is better than none at all." Said Ianto quietly from his position leaning against the low wall.

The team were presenting a united front again and even if it hadn't been the right thing to do Jack doubted he could have done anything to stop them, it was the night they opened the rift all over again.

"Jenny love, do you understand? Do you want to do this?" asked Gwen quietly with little hope of a response but her eyes opened and she felt the fingers tighten ever so slightly in her hand, Gwen nodded at Owen, who looked directly at Jack. Owen didn't need Jacks unfailing approval anymore, he hated to admit it but for sometime after he had come here he had sought it, he seemed to capitulate and Owen snapped into emergency mode.

"Tosh get some saline direct from the chiller, Ianto we need ice lots and lots of ice, Gwen you need to soak that blanket and make sure the heat is turned down here."

"Threashers are going to think we are having some wild party ." said Ianto darting from the Hub again.

Gwen rubbed Jenny's hand one last time and placed it back down on the cold metal surface and ran up to the main area. She returned quickly with a jug of water

"This is going to work isn't it Owen?" she asked quietly, his glance was non committal "Just we tend to loose people when they get involved with us, Lisa, Mary, Suzie, Beth, John, Diane, Estelle." She said quietly thinking of all the others that had passed through by Torchwood and not made it.

"Well I'm not loosing this one, could be a lot of hard work but if I make bloody Captain Invincible do CPR until the universe ends."

Some days Gwen hated this job so much she could happily take the Retcon and leave it for a nice desk job, babies and actual nights with Rhys, oh God she would have to phone him and make another excuse for not coming home,

"Oh hiya Rhys, yes there is a frozen meal for one in the ice box, why aren't I at home, well you remember Jenny from yesterday who I introduced as another long lost school friend, well she's laid out on the slab and we need to do continuous chest compressions for the next three weeks." That would work. She handed Owen the jug, the tears pricking the back of her eyes as she mumbled about something urgent and ran to the hot house. She knew she wouldn't be disturbed there as she flicked the re-dial,

"Rhys love, is that you? Thank God, you know I love you don't you?"

Gwen crept back in after half an hour of blubbing and sniffing that convinced Rhys he really had to come to the Hub and collect her and many reassurances on her behalf that despite outward appearances she was fine and it was just stress. Rhys tried to lighten the situation by reminding her that his mother wanted to know what colour the flowers were so she could co-ordinate her outfit and she had nano seconds to bluff her way through the fact that was still on her list of things to organise.

She stood behind Ianto and felt as his hand reached for hers, he always seemed to know just what to do to make things right, always got the right level of sarcasm to diffuse the situation, unlike Owen. She could hear her mother voice, all the best ones are married, all the handsome ones are gay or Rhys… Ianto was practically both but at times like this he was the one she would turn too. Jack was great if you needed to kick someone's head in, Owen was great for a reality check and Tosh was good when you needed technical fact, but Ianto was just everyone's rock.

"What's happening?" she whispered.

"She slipped into unconsciousness a few minutes ago, Owen doesn't give her long."

"Is the plan working?" she asked afraid of the answer

"Tosh is doing some more analysis now." He said giving an extra squeeze to reassure her.

"And Jack?"

"That might be more difficult to fix" said Ianto remembering the earlier incident.

"The shivering has stopped." Said Jack as if he was on auto pilot. Mentally he was ticking off the stages that Owen had clinically described to the rest of the team, what he hadn't described was the sheer insistent hell of pins and needles that came with the cold, the feeling of broken glass in each and every joint and then the rush of excruciating heat that poured through every single cell in the seconds before your lungs exploded and your brain left the building. That was the bit he really hated about eternally coming back, he knew what each and every death felt like and when life flooded back he could remember every feeling and had to suffer the resurrection hangover.

"She won't feel it Jack, the morphine will have kicked in by now" Owen was watching the numbers tick off.

"Ya think?" he asked quietly, morphine never really did it for him, granted it was a bit slow acting for his body but if it ever was really that bad he found it only took an edge off things, like a blunt knife raking across your skin rather than the faster sharp one. Gwen left Iantos side and went back to the place she had left to phone Rhys. All that could be seen under the bulky blankets keeping the ice in place was a paper white face, mainly covered with the oxygen mask and the single hand grasped by Jack, limp and waxy. Ianto stood behind Jack and placed his right hand on Jacks shoulder, Gwen noticed as Jack instinctively moved his head to make greater contact like a cat looking for an ear scratch. Owen did the same thing to Gwen and she didn't flinch, this was what everyone wanted at the end, to be surrounded by people who loved you, but no one even knew who she was. Silently Tosh slipped into the room and stood by Gwen and took the offered hand, her heart torn by the tears slipping soundlessly down Gwens face.

It seemed like a life time they all stood there, most of them contemplating their own existence when Jenny snapped opened her eyes. She looked round in confusion for a few seconds and finally fixed on Jacks face, he wiped away a rivulet of water from the warming ice and smiled.

"See you soon." He said quietly.

She smiled the most brilliant smile, one to rival Jacks best efforts and looked at the rest of the team for a second. Suddenly the serene expression vanished and her face contorted in pain as her body spasmed and went stiff momentarily, a primeval howl of pain and surprise left her lips and she went limp.


	16. Chapter 16

"Jack" said Gwen gently taking his hand and pulling away from the lifeless form on the table in front of them, she was puzzled by his actions over the last few hours but then again Jack was never easy to interpret. At first he resisted but slowly she managed to back him away enough to be able to stand in front of him and look him directly in the eye.

"Come on Jack lets go and get you a change of shirt and these guys some coffee." She tugged slightly at his arm to make him move as he was transfixed by Owen.

"I have it easy don't I?" said Jack quietly as Owen manoeuvred the laryngoscope into Jennys mouth and squinted as he placed a tube in her throat, Jack swallowed convulsively as Gwen pulled a little harder. Ianto gave him a quick smile as he reverently turned down the blanket and cleared the ice away from her chest and placed the heel of his hand on her sternum and started to press down counting lightly under his breath. Tosh squeezed the bulb of the resuscitation bag and Owen seemed pleased.

"God and providence now" said Owen rubbing his forehead to relieve a little of the tension.

"Gwen you couldn't find a pair of gloves could you?" asked Ianto already feeling the heat leaching from his fingers.

"20 minutes max and I have the stopwatch." Said Owen grinning when he saw Ianto purse his lips realizing he had left it on the side in anticipation earlier. "This is hard and thirsty work, well for you mere mortals" he looked at Jack "and the immortals amongst us. Did you mention coffee and perhaps pizza?" He said looking back at Gwen.

She tugged at Jack with more success this time and managed to guide him across the floor and up the steps. Jack was sweating which was something Gwen couldn't recall ever seeing before, she guided him into the nearest chair and picked up a half drunk glass of water. Jack took it gratefully and swallowed the contents in one before pulling a face,

"Tosh and her flower remedies." He said pulling a face. "I need coffee to get rid of the taste." Gwen smiled at him

"It'll have to be mine, unless you want to make some?" Jack pulled a face, his coffee was legendary only for its taste, sort of metallic, over boiled and possibly caustic. Ianto had banned him from the kitchen when he was creating blaming his presence for curdling the milk, when in fact it was sheer impatience which meant he used water too hot and too many coffee beans, even reusing the old grounds when particularly hasty.

"Pizza and gloves then." He said quietly "Gwen, I need you to do something for me, I know we all have a lot on our plates at the moment but…"

Gwen reached out and took his hand,

"Name it Jack"

"I need you to piece together her life, I want, no I need to know all the people she has been."

"Thought you would never ask." She said picking up a small file, "For public or private viewing?"

"Use the boardroom you all deserve to know too."

He flashed a grin and jumped up, a little too brightly as if he had to convince himself that everything was aright. Gwen watched him nearly crash the door as he ran up to the Tourist Office, she knew if she went up there she would find him stood staring into the Bay until the pizza turned up. Then she remembered his shirt looked like he had just run through an charnel house and they didn't need get blacklisted from another pizza delivery service, not this one anyway as they did brilliant vegetarian, with extra chicken.

"Twenty minutes" said Owen clicking the top of the watch twice and watching as Gwen mounted the small step at the side of the bed and Ianto moved Tosh out of the way and started pushing air into reluctant lungs. Tosh flexed her fingers as Jack stretched his wrists, this was one of the best work outs ever and he got to touch a girls chest without getting his face slapped. Trust his brain to take him down that path. To be honest he was revelling in the monotony of what they were doing five hours now and according to Owen they weren't going anywhere fast. Test after test had revealed the reaction against the additional iron had just about stopped and with it the constant trickles of blood down her face but her body wasn't fighting back like it had done just a few nights before. Owen sat twiddling his pen through his fingers and occasionally clicking the top, which sounded loud in the quiet of the autopsy bay. Tosh sat listlessly against the cold white tiles, a spare blanket wrapped round her shoulders and over her knees that were pulled up close to her chest, she was dog tired but to mention it seemed churlish.

"Take a rest Tosh" said Jack helping her to her feet and propelling her towards the Hub and the semi comfort of the sofa, one of these days we should replace it with something more relaxing he thought. He padded after her and peeled off up the stairs to brave making coffee, instant only with the milk and sugar left in their original containers on the tray. He passed the board room where Gwen had been at work, she had started on a time line in breaks between work downstairs. Jack was amazed at how far it had gone back, starting by the tv monitor was the date 1492, there were a few sparse images of tombs and grainy family trees moving across the windows where there were a few Wikipedia entries and more information as the photos previously printed out by Tosh made tracing her slightly easier. He paused by the photo that had brought it all flooding back, all this time she had been out there if only he had known. Finding someone who he didn't have to say goodbye to was his holy grail, he thought the Doctor would have been able to help with that one but instead it had helped him realise that he should hold onto what he had in the here and now.

Jack placed the coffee mug in Gwens frozen fingers and carried on where she had left off wincing as he pressed down and felt the grating crack as another rib broke under the relentless pressure. Owen looked over and held up a hand to silence the question.

"Inevitable outcome of what we are doing, anyway my old Professor used to say that if you didn't break a rib or six you weren't doing it right."

"Well that takes it up to eight I believe." said Ianto to Owens back as he skimmed though the latest figures that the computer had thrown at them. The plan wasn't working like he hoped and of course it would be girly to admit that but he was lost for what to do next.

It was Gwen that spoke first, annoying sometimes and when she wanted to be completely vacant but it was just a defence mechanism because at times Owen believed she was psychic.

"This isn't working is it?" She asked quietly watching Owens face intently so he couldn't hide anything.

"Someone is only dead when they are warm and dead, do you think that would make a good greeting card?" he said not answering the question but making the meaning clear. "I think the cold might now be working against us."

"So what are you going to do?" asked Jack quietly

Owen spun his chair round "Normal protocol would be slowly re-warming the core using a combination of heated fluids and thermal insulation." He pulled his hands thorough his hair and sighed "But it's a one shot option, if it doesn't work we're screwed."

"She's screwed." Said Jack under his breath

"Bit like supermarket chicken then, do not refreeze." Said Ianto and gained a dirty look from everyone including Owen who he thought might appreciate the humour in the situation. "Sorry couldn't help myself" he mumbled.

"Other options" said Jack, Owen wasn't sure if it was a statement or a question.

Owen shook his head and quietly put the file down. "Anyone any ideas?" asked Jack with more than a hint of despair.

"I go with the medic, that is what we pay him for." Said Ianto, Gwen nodded her head heavy on her shoulders.

Jack rolled his head back and closed his eyes to contemplate all the options and was greeted with haunting images of his past, sometimes you had to roll the hard six, whatever the hell that meant. He shook his head to clear it slightly and realised that everyone, including Tosh bundled in a duvet on the higher level was looking at him for an answer, though for it to be a question it would need to have options.

"Lets give it our best shot." He said resignedly, Ianto reached out and touched his hand the one touch sending sparks through his soul and reminding him to look forward not backwards.

Owen had set on sweeping the ice away with almost too much gusto and Tosh had skittered across the ice on the floor when she returned the duvet earning him a rebuke about health and safety from Ianto. Owen just scowled and muttered something about whose job it was to clear up while Gwen clucked with dry clothing and blankets. It had taken time Jack mused, as well as the odd disaster, but Torchwood Three was a well oiled machine, all the parts working together rubbing together with the odd spark but mainly just being efficient. Except when they lost a cog, when he had run away, when Owen had died, when one of them lost someone they loved the wheels fell off and they had to start all over again. One, two, three, four, five, stop wait for the count of two, one, two, three, four, five.

"Jack" it was Gwens voice breaking into his thoughts, "Earth to Jack can you even hear me?" to put emphasis on the words she touched his shoulder, his skin had gone numb as he had spent his time locked away sifting all the thoughts that had recently escaped.

"Jack you need to take a rest." The stop watch had turned and each time Jack had resisted swapping places insisting that the rest of the team take a rest so for three more hours he had worked constantly as if that could wipe the slate clear.

Ianto was worried again, he had seen Jack like this before, he worked himself into exhaustion and it ended one of two ways either he upset everyone to the point where they wanted to or even did murder him or he ran away and came back after finding himself as if nothing had happened. In three hours he hadn't stopped to take a drink, to say anything out loud more than count constantly under his breath, he had even stopped looking up at the stats on the wall. If he had he would have noticed that her core temperature was creeping back towards a more normal level and in a eureka moment about half an hour ago Owen had realised her oxygen saturation was going up slightly and was at least nearing the point that she had last clung to consciousness with. The moment of truth was fast approaching.

Gwen and Ianto moved either side of Jack, beneath the slightly crumpled shirt his arms were starting to wobble with the exertion of his work. Any normal human would have folded long before now but that was the thing about having the energy from the heart of the TARDIS poured into you, you didn't sleep and you thought you could carry on for ever. They gently pulled him back and Ianto surreptitiously put a supporting arm round his waist while Gwen started doing the hard work until Owen was completely ready. He had done this so many times in his previous career and it wasn't half as successful as they would make you think on ER, sometimes the body just didn't have the energy to start again, sometimes it was just not supposed to be. But then again the worlds only know exceptions to this rule were now gathered in a slightly damp cavern under the heart of regenerated Cardiff, the immortal dashing hero, the angsty unfilled zombie and an alien with at least half a millennium of memories, oh how he wished he could write a book on this, no one would believe him though.

"Ready?" Asked Owen. They all knew what happened next and none of them really had much more part in it than doing what they were told. Ianto had retrieved his stop watch, and was ready to help Owen while Jack just stood out of the way strangely helpless. The doctor pushed the first set of drugs in through the IV port, a goodly mix of adrenalin, atropine and a few other helpful substances and hoped that she would react in a human fashion. Ianto flicked the charge button on the defibrillator and gave a silent prayer to whatever was out there.


	17. Chapter 17

_I do believe I may have just become the cliche Queen, but I am sure you guessed this was where it was all heading. Didn't you? only took about 10 more chapters than I thought. Of course it isn't all over yet! Let me know your thoughts, and boy am I trying with the apostrophe thing but grammar is making my head hurt so please insert any missing punctuation as you feel fit!!_

_Cheers again for sticking with it._

"46 minutes and 27 seconds" Replied Ianto looking at the stop watch as it ticked inexorably, second by second.

Owen scanned the detritus of medical equipment littering any flat surface within his reach and a few that weren't, mentally counting the used vials and syringes, but he knew exactly what he had used and it all added up to nothing. Jack was still pumping away, but even he looked tired and Gwen had changed hands for the third time in as many minutes as the stiff plastic had wearied the muscles in her hands. Tosh, Ianto and finally Gwen looked at Owen, they all knew what torment he was going through. He had always taken losses personally and then gone on a heavy drinking session which each and everyone of them had had to clear up after, but this was the first time after he had been through it himself. What the hell do you say to a dead guy when he can't bring someone back to life?

In a hospital there had to be two doctors to pronounce a death but in Torchwood there was an unspoken rule, everyone had to agree. Owen looked each of them in the eye and then back at the projections on the wall, nothing, nada, zip. He looked back at his patient and at the destruction around him, five rounds of drugs, countless shocks at various voltages all in accordance with specified guidelines and all that had changed was the bruising on the chest wall where he had placed the paddles over and over again.

"Stop a second guys" said Owen wearily, he needed to confirm exactly what he knew. The screens confirmed his failure. As Owen contemplated the lack of options available to him Jack moved forward and started the compressions again automatically.

"Jack" said Owen quietly "It's over I'm calling it."

He looked at the rest of the team and each of them nodded, Gwen and Tosh stepped back and leant against the white tiled wall, Gwen started chewing her thumb as she looked at Jack who hadn't stopped what he was doing. The team all looked at each other, words weren't needed, Ianto clicked the stop watch one final time and then walked quietly round the table till he was stood behind Jack. He gently placed his hands on the top of Jacks arms and held them at his side, his own eyes closed as he rested his head against Jacks broad shoulders. Tosh was in tears as Ianto gently guided Jack back from the table his face blank as he turned and buried his head in to Iantos shoulder, a great shuddering heave wracking his body as the truth finally hit him. None of the team could really explain why this case had hit them so hard, perhaps it was because she was one of their own, perhaps it was because they were trying to make up for Torchwoods past, perhaps it was just another wasted life.

"She was in the SOE during the war, she blew up train lines in France and when they caught her she ended up in a concentration camp because she wouldn't name the locals in the resistance. That's why she was recruited for Torchwood." Said Gwen quietly. "She could have told us so much." Gwen rearranged a small piece of hair on Jennys forehead and wiped away a tear. "Tosh will you give me a hand filling in the blanks in her history, break a few Top Secret files?"

"Go home." Said Owen wearily, "You're all tired it can wait till tomorrow, which is precisely 34 minutes away. Ianto take the girls home and I'll do some tidying here."

There were mumbles of agreement, it shocked Tosh to realise they had been holed up in the hub for the best part of 36 hours now and she felt like her shoes were made of lead as she pulled herself upright.

"I'll help you tomorrow and for as long as it takes." She said squeezing Gwens hand as they moved slowly towards the steps. Neither of them wanted to look back, they would say their final goodbyes tomorrow when Owen had tidied the body up. He could always make people look so peaceful, like they had fallen asleep and for all his other faults in the past he gave a little dignity to any fallen creature before he sent them to the vaults. He stepped forward and disconnected the ambubag and tightened up the clip on the IV line, little things that helped him distance himself, remind him he was still first and foremost a doctor.

"Jack" said Ianto quietly "Jack you're going to have to let me go so I can drive Gwen and Tosh home." Ianto motioned to Owen to leave them alone with his eyes and for once Owen took the hint.

"I'll go and clean myself up" said Owen walking backwards quietly, he couldn't even go and hide somewhere with a cup of coffee any more, in the past he would have kicked something viciously but that wouldn't appease anymore. Perhaps he would go and watch the party people wandering round Mermaid Quay for a few minutes and pretend he was one of them.

"I'll give you a hand with the paperwork when I get back." Said Ianto as Owen held up a hand to show it wasn't necessary and pointed at Jack's back instead. He was right he would have his hands full with Jack but if he left Owen with the paper trail it would just be more work later. Ianto held Jack until Owen had disappeared and then gently pushed him away till he could see his face.

"We did all we could Jack, it wasn't meant to be."

Jack sniffed loudly and took a visible gulp to compose himself.

"I'll stay here, someone should sit with her."

Ianto nodded, he'd seen it with Suzie, Beth and John and doubtless Jack had sat with hundreds of Torchwood employees in the hours before he had watched them disappear into the vast vaults of frozen bodies. Ianto wondered if it was some sort of personal penance for never being able to join them. He pulled over the high wheeled stool and sat Jack down like a mother with her child and gave him one last kiss on the temple before walking away, leaving Jack holding her hand and gently restoring the gown to its rightful place covering the bruises.

Ianto paced pensively through the high room that was the centre of the Hub, perhaps he should rig the lighting system to reflect the changes in light outside he thought irrationally. He grabbed the keys to the SUV and picked up his coat because he thought it might be cold at that time of night, even though it seemed like mid afternoon, it always seemed like mid afternoon in the Hub. He checked to see if Tosh and Gwen had taken their bag's a sure sign they were waiting outside for him and went to get the SUV from the garage where he had abandoned it in haste all those hours ago. He suddenly had the image of Gwens car as he had run past it, there was blood all over the back seat that he would have to clean off before she could drive it home, he hoped Rhys wouldn't notice the fact she was being picked up for a few days. He pulled his collar up and pulled his neck downwards like a tortoise retreating into it's shell slowly moving the keys between his fingers till he sensed the ignition key and held it in front of him. He smacked the electronic door latch with a little too much gusto and savoured the damp feel of the night air, in the distance he could hear one of the girls consoling the other one, or perhaps they were both crying. He was about to step out, clicking the electronic central locking so the others could climb in out of the cold when he heard the shout.

Jack held Jennys cooling fingers against his lips, his eyes closed as he tried to picture that night back in 1954. A face so bloodied and bruised he hadn't recognised it as his first crush since crashing back to earth from the Game Station. Sure there had been flings, despite the prim and proper Victorian attitudes, but Nurse Smith, wow, had she hit the spot. He had always believed in lust at first sight, Ianto being the last in a long line but lust occasionally became the right thing, she was the only time he could truly say he had experienced love at first sight. Everyone just assumed Jack was in it for the sex and while he had to admit he did enjoy the odd meaningless night, deep down he wanted the same as everyone else, someone to come home to, someone to ask "How was your day dear" someone to whom words weren't necessary. Perhaps 90 years ago that could have happened but now he was brutalised to everything the world had thrown at him, he had watched his first and only wife die of an infection that would have taken nothing more than a few pills to solve now and had left the only other woman that he would have stayed with believing he had died and left his son visit her. Now she was dead too. Death by Torchwood. Just when would life stop taunting him with the death of those he felt for this had to happen.

Jack started repeating the words "I'm sorry, so sorry" like a mantra as he stood to start arranging the body in a more comfortable position, the only thing left he could do. If only he had stood up to the hierarchy all those years ago instead of running away to hide from himself. Now the flood gates had opened he would have to look through all those files hidden in the dust locked vaults, purge the demons hidden behind dark curtains in his mind. He would have to get Gwen to help him see the humanity, the thing that Torchwood had lacked all those years ago, and Ianto, he owed Ianto a big explanation. Ianto who would sit patiently and listen to all the horrors and make it seem alright, funny but that was what Lucy, Jenny, Freda, whoever this person, thing, alien was had done, two nights in the canteen she had listened and made it alright. He had described all the killing, all the young boys he had seen go over the top and had watched being blown apart within yards and how he had never got a scratch till then. Looking back he wondered if she had put two and two together then or if her natural empathy had won his heart. Jack shuddered as he pulled the gown straight over her hips, the bloody mark where the helixical symbol of 'the firm' had been branded into her skin had reopened after all these years. At some point during the last day and night Ianto had read out the page where it described the "Perplexities of permanent marking of the Torchwood property designated Alien species 2974-33, planet of origin unknown", it turned out "Heat, cold and most known chemicals were insufficient to leave a mark lasting more than a few days, concentrated hydrochloric acid being the most likely to leave a mark lasting into weeks rather than days." Unsurprisingly that report had caused Gwen to throw up. He would never know her really name now either.

Without leaving go of Jennys hand Jack reached out to pick up some gauze so he could clean away a little of the dried blood left on her face and through her damp matted hair. Leaning over a little too far the wheel on the stool suddenly moved, jolting Jack so he was forced to extend his leg to stop him falling flat on his backside, to compensate he raised the arm holding her hand opening his grip slightly. He turned back quickly expecting the arm to drop causing more indignity to her already battered body but the hand stayed in his, he could have sworn that the fingers had gripped more tightly but sense told him it was the beginning of rigor mortis. Gently he laid the arm back by her side and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand tracing one deep laceration scoring the skin by her right eye.

"Whatever did they do to you?" murmured Jack squeezing a little of the excess water on the swab onto the floor. He dabbed the cold wet gauze at the offending wound and then turned round to washout the blood.

Owen was at the far end of the upper floor of the Hub, just past the Board room where the shower room that looked like a five star hotel was situated. How Ianto had managed to get the marble down into the Hub was nearly as miraculous as getting the bill hidden in the expenses file, the one decent legacy of the Rift nearly destroying the whole base. Owen washed his hands for the fourth time, scrubbing with medical efficiency between the fingers and under his nails but he could still feel the sticky blood. The water was warm, inviting and Owen was considering sticking his head under the tap and letting the water wash through his hair, but looking round there was only the one towel left that he hadn't soaked through washing and drying his hands so he would have to stick at throwing water on his face till he went and messed up the cupboard for a larger one. He threw the first cupped handful of water on closed eyelids when he heard the sound, he could have sworn it was Jack bellowing his name. Nah Jack only had two reasons for bellowing his name, one: Owen was about to destroy the world, again, and the second was a medical emergency and there were only the two people least likely to ever need a doctor again left within the Hub. And a dead body.

Owen dried his face quickly and stepped out into the passage, starting to hear things would really top off his day, when his name reverberated loudly round the whole of the Hub, Jack had obviously activated the comms then. Owen started sprinting down the corridor back towards the main area wondering if this did mean that the Rift had waited conveniently till they were all knackered to play up again. Slightly confused when he didn't see Jack immediately standing at the computer Owen skidded to a halt and turned towards the ever increasingly desperate sound of Jacks shouts, back in the autopsy bay, did the man never give up? Regaining his momentum he charged straight through the opening but was brought up short by the sight in front of him.

Jack had turned back round to continue cleaning Jenny's wounds, his head spinning with all the missed opportunities and the experiences he wished hadn't happened however much they made him stronger. As he placed the damp swab to her forehead her eyes flicked open, like those on a googly doll, Jack stared right back dropping the swab in what most humans would describe as terror, but Jack had no fears anymore. In the split second it took his brain to process this new turn of events the realisation of what assaults her body had gone through also reached Jenny's consciousness and she jack-knifed as tried in vain to breath normally with a tube in the throat. That was when Jack started hollering fit to wake most of Cardiff.

With what he hoped was a steadying hand on her shoulder Jack shouted for Owen, and then turned back to look into a pair of petrified eyes and a face going red as she fought without success to take a breath. Jack knew that feeling, he had woken up more than once in an A&E department post shooting/car crash/falling from a tall building with the same problem. The tube stopped a vacuum forming to allow your lungs to draw in air and while forensics were brilliant when you had a whiskey in your hand the here and now was a little different. The other thing Jack could remember all to vividly from these moments was that pulling on that tube got you what you wanted but could also be as painful and not a little dangerous especially when it caused him to puke his guts up, every single time. He shouted again even he could hear the note of desperation which wasn't helping calm the situation as he looked back at her and grabbed her arms to try and stop her struggling, which to be honest wasn't difficult as even in the last few seconds the adrenalin was wearing off and her muscles were getting more limp by the second. Still her hands scrabbled at the tape across her face holding the tube in place and without the benefit of Owens considerable expertise, damn but that one was a hard one to admit, Jack had to take a split second decision.

"Breath out" he ordered, though it could have asked her to do a double summersault for the good that did as he tried to time his actions with hers. He took a good grip on the plastic and pulled.

Owen crashed down in to the autopsy bay as Jack heaved Jenny onto her side and was greeted with a hail of projectile vomit followed by pained screams as the broken ribs grated against each other and the soft tissue that surrounded them.

"Where the hell did you learn that move?" asked Owen nearly falling in the slick of vomit. Gently he helped Jack move her onto her back again but instinctively she tried to curl into the foetal position and Owen didn't stop her.

"She was dead, I swear." Said Owen looking at the very alive vital signs jumping around on the wall. "Harkness what did you do this time?" he said in an accusatory tone.

Jack moved only his eyes, his hands stroking her temple and the upper arm.

"Nothing I swear, I did learn my lesson last time" he said with a slight note of hysteria.

Owen gave him one of his patented eyebrow lifts and shoved him unceremonially out of the way to check that this wasn't some sick last minute alien death rattle. Ianto, who had picked up the screams following the shouting and expected some sort of time/space invasion, ran into the area and stopped.

"Not again" he muttered tapping his comm unit and speaking to Gwen "Slight change of plan ladies perhaps you would like to come back inside." There was a moment or two while she told Tosh and then came back.

"Do we really have to Ianto we just want to go home." She said quietly

"Trust me you want to be back inside." Said Ianto simply.


	18. Chapter 18

Well this is getting a little more difficult than I wanted. Sorry about the wait, I promise to try and be faster, is it still worth carrying on?

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Well hold her bloody hand then" Shouted Ianto at the sight of Jack standing there like a lemon. God but sometimes he had to be the adult round this place and what the hell was Owen doing pulling the contents of the ready use drugs cabinet out onto the floor.

"Owen focus" he said wanting to slap him for good effect, "What are you looking for?"

"Ianto" said Own as if he had only just realised he was there, he paused a second to do as he was told, he understood the consequences of disobeying the young Welshman and would carry the scar on his shoulder to his grave, if he ever got one of course. "How much morphine have we used?"

Ianto picked up the previously discarded notes and flicked through mentally adding all the doses.

"Exactly the same amount as we normally keep in the Hub." Said Ianto succinctly.

"Shit" shouted Owen throwing a final handful of medicines back into the metal cabinet and continued with a few more choice phrases. He pinched the bridge of his nose, a classic Owen thinking position, as he muttered through the options.

"Owen do something." Said Jack his voice dangerously low as he turned his head from the whimpering form of the woman on the table. Ianto was pleased to see Jack had followed his orders and went to collect the blanket from the floor where it had fallen. He covered the shaking form and brushed over Jacks hand for reassurance, they were white, the blood crushed out of them by the death grip of the woman in front of them. She was muttering incoherently in between small agonising moans,

"Make it stop, please make it go away."

It sounded more like a mantra and Jack responded making all the right sounds but it was like sticking a plaster on a gaping wound. Ianto, efficient as ever, quickly got the mop and bucket that always stood in the hall in the hope of making the environment a little nicer. As he came back Tosh and Gwen came walking in slowly, neither of them looked please to be called away from the inviting warmth of a bed promised not half an hour ago. Seeing the stressed look on Iantos face they both perked up slightly and walked with a little more purpose back towards the autopsy room.

"Jesus Jack what did you do this time?" Exploded Gwen as the vision of a dead woman breathing and struggling for life assaulted her eyeballs. Tosh also brought up short and just stared.

"Why do you all automatically blame me?" asked Jack affronted

"Call it past history Jack" said Gwen huffily "Owen do you need a hand?"

"No I need morphine and we don't have any" He replied his shaking hands pulling together a few other drugs that he knew she needed anyway.

"Right well I'll get some, write me the script and I'll go to the pharmacy over at the hospital, Ianto can ring ahead and I can be there and back in twenty minutes." Ever practical in a crisis that didn't involve her or one of the people she loved.

"We don't have 20 minutes Gwen." Hissed Owen

"Give me the keys and find Owen his little pad to scribble on." She said ignoring him as she often did now she had the confidence she had lacked before Jack had disappeared.

"Of course the SUV" said Ianto cryptically as he sprinted up the stairs.

"Fucking great." Said Owen throwing his hands up dramatically, "The one time it would be good to work as a team and Tea-boy decides to go it alone."

"Zip it Owen." Said Gwen coming down to Owens level in the pit. "Think what your other options are." She was looking round for a pen, Good God though Owen, she wants to bloody brain storm patient resuscitation in the middle of an incident.

"She needs some pain relief because her blood pressure is going to give her a stroke and I've used all the meds because the Hub isn't set up as a full scale emergency department. We can't shove her off to A&E because there are too many questions and I've run out of options." The despair in his voice echoed round the autopsy bay as they both looked back at the tableau of desolation playing out before them.

Tosh started forward taking her leather jacket off and throwing it over her discarded bag.

"I have an idea." She said quietly moving over to where Jack was crouched down trying to get any sort of eye contact as Jennys eyes flitted all over, the concentration to get her breath taking priority over anything else.

"Let me take her hands Jack." He looked at her unwilling to give up the contact "It's fine Jack I just want to try something." She said with a hand on his shoulder.

She took both of the frail white hands and bent close to Jennys face talking quietly so none of the team could quite hear what she was saying.

"Where's Ianto?" asked Jack looking round as if it was the first time he had seen the rest of the team in the room.

"He just ran off" said Gwen without any inflection leaving Jack to flounder around for the meaning in the sentence as he looked into her wide eyes

"Sit-rep" he snapped at the pair of them needing to get a grip on something before he became the same gibbering mess the pair in front of him were becoming.

Owen looked back at the screens and then at Tosh and Jenny,

"What are you doing Tosh?" he asked quietly

"Acupressure, by using some pressure points at the base of the thumb it seems to reduce the awareness of the pain."

"Well I never, it seems to be working a bit." Said Owen, the wonderment that anything not based on the ideals of western chemistry could provide any relief.

Jack watched over the scene, his mind coming back to full speed like being dragged through the time vortex. He was about to start issuing orders again when he heard the clattering steps of leather soled shoes on the metal work of the Hub and suddenly Ianto burst back into the autopsy bay carrying the field med kit from the rear of the SUV.

"Pethadine" he wheezed holding the bag up in front of him.

Owens eyes widened in glorious recognition as he snatched the black case from him

"Ianto Have I ever told you that you are a genius." He asked as he snapped open the metal tin that held the single use pain killer. Owen felt it was a rather blunt instrument in the vast arsenal of painkilling drugs he could get his hands on but it was an easy thing for the rest of the team to understand in the field. Besides that at the moment beggars could not be choosers.

"Nope, I think that is the first time you have recognised what I have always known to be true." Ianto straightened up, the sprint to the SUV hadn't been far but he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten and he had used all his energy on the gallop up the steps.

Jack slapped him on the back as Owen jabbed the needle into an exposed portion of the thigh, the further unexpected shock causing a gasp from the patient. Ianto took a final deep breath and composed himself, the mask of normality covering his face.

"Now Gwen can have the keys and go to St Helens." Said Ianto holding out the keys like a sausage in front of a dog.

After admitting that for once he was wrong – the autopsy room was no longer suitable - they had transferred the patient to the softer surroundings of the medical suite. Owen had however had the last word stopping Jack from in his matinee idol role and insisting on doing things properly, using the trolley to transport her, in the lift. That seemed such a long time ago thought Jack wiping his face and feeling the stubble, if fate was going to make him live forever it could of at least made it so he didn't have to shave every day. He had shooed the others away, all of them reluctant to leave again after what had happened last time but he had pulled rank and given them all the look. Tosh and Gwen had pulled on Iantos arm to go and Jack had politely suggested he go home and change, code for the fact he would have to warm his own bed tonight. Jack hoped he realised it wasn't permanent but he needed some head space to get over what had happened to him today and sitting in a small room was one place to do that. Only lit by one lamp, turned against the wall so there was enough light that you didn't fall over, but not enough to really disturb the patient he really did have space to cogitate. He knew Owen was still within screaming distance but Jack would place money on the fact he would be in some second world, which seemed to be his escape now porn was a sick reminder of what he could never have. One day soon humans would have real alternative realities, the 21st century really was when it all changed – how come he could remember lessons in school that he wasn't really paying attention to but not what his mother looked like?

Owen had made Jenny comfortable and then given her something to help sleep, his remark that the drugs seemed to be lasting a little longer than last time had worried him. Why did everything Torchwood touch seem to end up broken? He stroked her hand again so she knew there was someone there, it was horrendous to wake up in a strange place, alone, a subject on which he could write a book. He hoped she wouldn't remember much of the last 24 hours, they said people don't normally remember trauma like that, he did, he remembered every little moment that brought him to each of his deaths. He could probably name all of them but he had stopped count after about 700, especially as he had turned it into a fairground trick so about 200 of them were the same, night in night out. How was he going to get this across to Ianto? How do you truly explain why you would hide large portions of his life even from yourself to someone who wore their own heart on their sleeve and believed that his own lies and secrets had nearly ended the world. He knew the boy, no man, too well to think for a minute he would let it go, like a dog with a rag when he thought he was being kept in the dark. Just telling him it was for his own good that he didn't know wouldn't cut the mustard any more and lying didn't sit well after the fact that this was all caused by his deceit.

He snook a look at his watch, nearly 6am, Ianto would be in soon with his coffee and smiles, perhaps after that they could talk. Unconsciously he rubbed the bruises round the base of her thumbs, Tosh had really done a number on her and Jack shuddered to think what other talents she had hidden away but as normal the quiet hidden talents of a team that on paper shouldn't even function well enough to know each others names came to the fore. Jack was pulled out of his introspection when he noted the slight change in breathing patterns, the next two minutes could get painful. He stood up so he could get close to her face when she did finally realise what was happening and started stroking her cheek and cooing, he was cooing he thought to himself the 21st century and it's foray into metro sexuality really had effected him.

Jenny couldn't work out what was happening in her own head, her chest and her hip it was a sensation she wasn't used to but as her brain finally flipped over the last card before becoming conscious she realised this was pain, true bone wrenching pain. As she struggled to breath without the grinding of bone she felt herself being pulled slightly forward taking the weight off her sternum till she regained some equilibrium. She hadn't yet opened her eyes but she knew who it was in the room with her, the touch alone was something she had held in her mind for 90 years. Finally as she felt herself returning to the soft over stuffed pillows that had her propped in a strange half sitting position she opened her eyes.

"Welcome back." He said quietly, rearranging the hair on her forehead and replacing the plastic pipe delivering oxygen behind her ear. "Do you need something for the pain, Owens's just next door I can get him."

She shook her head and kept hold of his hand trying to form a sentence in her head while working out if she could actually cope with the sensations moving round her body. Jack saw her lips moving, a small bright red tear catching the eye against the paleness of her face and reached over awkwardly with his free hand to snatch up the glass of water on the cabinet. He smiled inwardly when he saw the straw, Ianto must of remembered how he had ended up wearing most of his drink when Jack had tried the same thing with him just after their trip to the Beacons. After a few sips she lifted her hand and moved the glass away but she didn't have enough strength left to move her head from the hand that was holding it upright.

"I have never felt like this before." She said falteringly "It goes away, tell me it is going to go away soon, how can humans cope, how do they keep going?" she asked starting to shake a little.

"We all carry on because that's what life is" he said with a sad smile, reflexively he felt himself stroking her cheek, wiping away the tears that had formed. For the first time he realised that he had regained something he once buried, late Victorian Britain hadn't really gone for the touchy feely approach and it felt so much better like this.

"You scared us all, we thought we lost you."

"Do you do this every time?" she asked grasping his hand and winding the fingers together, she didn't know she was doing it but she gripped so tightly it hurt.

"Sometimes it's worse than others, but I gotta say I don't think I have ever died of so many things at once."

"How can you cope with it all?"

"You just box it and carry on." He said realising that was going to have to change.

She just looked at him, breathing heavily, before forming a response.

"That's the difference between you and me, you hide in the shadows – I hide in the light." She paused for breath and tried to get a little more comfortable but found she just didn't have the strength to move. "And I hope you have a bigger storage area for all those boxes because I would say yours is full and you're only a youngster." She smiled and they both started to chuckle which quickly turned into a full on coughing fit frightening Jack into calling Owen.


	19. Chapter 19

The pain was marginally less, but as she slowly explored exactly how much she could move without it becoming unbearable Gwen moved over to the bed and gently placed a hand over hers. Jenny had never really got with the touchy feely programme and that attitude had served her well over the past 40 years of medical practice and she shuddered slightly at the contact. Gwen quickly moved her hand but smiled and sort to fill the silence with words.

"You look better."

"I feel like shit." Said Jenny, the boring pain in her chest and head taking away the capacity to make a longer sentence. "How long has it been?"

Gwen looked at her watch, it was mid afternoon though it could have been anytime in subterranean Torchwood.

"About 18 hours since you, well you know" Gwen didn't really feel comfortable telling someone they had been dead, two years working with Jack and it seemed normal for him, but Gwen didn't know how normal it was for her.

"Since I got hit by a truck." She took an experimental deep breath and just about managed it. "This isn't right, I should be running round by now"

"Owen is trying to work that one out now, if it's any consolation he still thinks you are healing faster than the average human." Gwen trying to be perky was not a good thing.

Jenny smiled in a resigned way and tried to push her self upright, she wasn't used to doing nothing or being an invalid, but her body rebelled and Gwen found herself struggling to hold her in the bed while calling for Owen. She hadn't wanted the baby sitting duties anyway, she was itching to delve deeper into Jennys past in the hope she could use it to wheedle more information out of Jack about his past. The med room had no connectivity because Tosh refused to run cables to a room that never got used and Owen said the slightly "cookie", that being his technical term for anything he didn't understand or couldn't pronounce, wireless technology would spook his strictly earth bound equipment. So Jack had given her a well thumbed copy of War of the Worlds from his personal collection which she had snorted at till Ianto had sidled up to her and pointed out that it was a first edition and she should check out the cover page, it was inscribed in beautiful copperplate

"_For Jack, a true friend and visionary and may his imagination never show truth"_

It was signed Bert. So instead to finding answers she was getting more questions.

Owen came running at her shouts, all he seemed to do at the moment was run round at other peoples behest, but that was the nature of the job and the alternative wasn't worth thinking about. As he burst through the door he rolled his eyes and helped Gwen get Jenny back into the bed, his hand lingering a little longer than was strictly necessary on the small of Gwens back when he stepped away – well he could dream couldn't he?

"Really, we do not another hero in this place." He said pulling a stethoscope out of his back pocket. "There must be something in the air that forces people into working themselves to death."

Gwen couldn't look him in the eye after that comment, little close to the bone even for the worlds most insensitive man. He gave short barking orders to his patient and then stood back contemplating the results. Jenny scowled at him breathing heavily through her nose while Gwen stood in a corner, trying to calculate how she could get out of the door.

"So give me the bad news then doctor."

"No it's not bad news, it's good news in fact, you are healing, faster than I would expect for a human, I reckon if I didn't know better that what happened yesterday was about four days ago."

"I should be fine by now." She whined, oh god thought Owen not another one it sounded just like Jack when he was recovering from the beating of his life. Owen leant back on a metal table and crossed his arms in front of his chest, he hoped he looked like George Clooney or McDreamy.

"Well I've been looking into that and I still don't know what happened, or how you are alive at the moment." He paused for dramatic effect and got the sort of death stare that the Tea Boy could only dream of perfecting, "The main problem is your body rejected most of the blood I gave you the day before so most of the stuff flowing through your veins, do you call them veins by the way, is a saline/glucose concoction." As if to prove a point he dragged out a vial of straw coloured fluid and waggled it in front of her, she snatched it from him and looked at it experimentally.

"That doesn't look right" she said swirling it as if that would make it look more normal

"I'm doing a bit of analysis on it at the moment and I can tell you there are no nanobots or anything else creepy in there." He took the vial back off her and put it in a pocket.

"Nothing?" she asked her interest piqued by the fact that 500 years of explanations to herself had just been shattered, "So what makes me so different from you, apart from the fact I have a pulse?" Owen nearly dropped the clipboard.

"Look I have no right to judge here, strictly between you and me, I've met a few people who described themselves as vampires, the odd shape shifter and even seen the odd ghost or two so I'm just curious."

"How can you tell?" asked Owen swallowing convulsively for no reason other than reflex.

"Owen I have just spent 40 years in various medical school anatomy labs, A&E departments the length of the country and a few stints in various war zones over the past 500 years. I know what a dead body looks and feels like, even if it is talking to me." She raised an eyebrow and let the statement hang in the air.

"Long story." Said Owen to close the argument and went back to fussing round various machines.

"I'm happy to give you a hand, got me interested in me again, did Torchwood ever pin Jack down to a reasonable explanation?" She asked beginning to sit up and swing her legs round.

"Whoa." Said Owen as he stopped her getting out of bed, which was unlikely to happen anyway as the movement of her legs caused the blood left in her to rush south and a wave of vertigo caused the floor to move away from her feet. Tucking her back under the sheets he stood back with his hands on his hips.

"Lets do a deal, you sit there like a good alien and if you can keep breakfast down tomorrow I will talk to Jack about letting you help."

She looked at him, her lips set with exactly the same pout Ianto gave him when he was told what to do but nodded seeing the sense in what he was saying. She picked up the book Gwen had left and turned over the beautiful bindings to see what was going to occupy her for the next few hours.

Owen stepped back and turned to leave the room when she spoke again,

"Tell me Owen, with an attitude like that exactly how many times a day do you get punched?"

"I do a good line in blocking and dodging." He said with a wry smile as he left the room.

As a new day dawned over Cardiff Bay Jack sniffed the air like a dog checking his patch, he wondered if he would ever smell truly fresh air again. Zapping himself from the Game Station to the centre of industrial London with it's coal fires and pea soupers had just about burnt all his sense of smell out for years, he had tried oceanic travel with the intention of settling in the rapidly civilising "Wild West" with the wide open spaces and woodlands of Montana in the hope of getting rid of the rank smell. To get there however he had passed through Ellis Island and the rest as they say is history. He looked over at the new residential developments that now littered the Bay, perhaps he should just move Torchwood into their basement. Despite the fact he had told everyone to take the day off unless he called to tell them the world was ending they were all back by lunchtime. They all live for work, even Gwen who did have a life which was why in semi punishment he had given her the most boring job in the world. He had just sent them all home again and was starting to dream about a fairly simple meal in the local tapas bar with Ianto for company when the alarms had gone off and while it wasn't worlds end their seemed to be more work than he could handle alone.

So the girls had gone haring off after a set of chronon particles and he had taken Ianto Weeviling. Of course one loose Weevil is bad luck, two is erring on the side of decidedly unnatural and three have a explanation that needs investigating. So they had been out most of the night in various sewers and empty warehouses, why did Weevils never decide to terrorise a nice spa or a decent 5 star hotel? Ianto had kept up with him until the drive home when Jack had noticed that there were no groans at his bad jokes and noticed that Ianto had fallen asleep in the passengers seat, Jack wasn't even sure he had woken up on the walk back into the Hub and was now asleep on his bed. Jack hadn't even had time to think of all the things that had happened to him in the last 72 hours, the promises he had made to himself and Ianto about the past, but what was his past? He waved at the security guard from the Senedd who was just going home and decided to walk out to his favourite little bakery instead of driving.

It was one of those walks that needed no conscious thought, other than avoiding the odd early morning runner and having to look long in a cursory fashion at road junctions but he would hear most things other than the paper boy on his bike long before it was on top of him. He walked over the grass in the park getting the hem of his coat wet from the dew and tried to remember the landscape of a hundred years ago, with the castle looming in front of him not that different. He turned sharply right and meandered into the housing estate and found the place he was looking for. He ordered a large variety of fatty, salty or sticky treats that should raise the general BMI of the Hub by at least two points but he reasoned they probably worked it off last night any how. He took the large box from the grandmother in front of him, a woman he had know as a two year old who sat in her pram outside the shop while her own mother worked inside and set off on a more direct route. That was something he could tell Ianto about perhaps, but too much information had to be bad. He reasoned with himself about the things he knew about that he could hide, the things he didn't know he had hidden and the bits that revealed too much about the future. He was starting to understand why the Doctor was as scatty as he appeared to be sometimes, Jack only had 150 years of history and give or take his forays with the Time Agency that he could remember about 4000 years of future. The Doctor once said he could see the whole of time which would occupy his team with questions till they exploded.

With a light step only held by those who are ignoring every other impulse he disappeared in front of the water tower and descended into the Hub. As normal everyone looked up, well Gwen and Tosh, Owen could be heard humming tunelessly from the lab as he passed at that level. It always struck Jack as strange, there was only one person that could operate that lift from outside, him, yet they always looked up in casual wonder as if they weren't expecting it to be him but if it wasn't him they would all be dead by the time they reached for a weapon. Perhaps some retraining was required. Instead of look back to her computer screen Gwens face lit up at the sight of the box and she clapped like a small child, that always made Jack grin, another one of the little things that made it all worth fighting for.

"Hey kids did you miss me?" asked Jack, one of his favourite lines and the company in-joke.

"Why have you been somewhere?" asked Tosh innocently not looking away from her screen, all the while resisting the urge to snatch the box from him.

"Thought I would get myself a snack, you should have said if you wanted anything" he said behind her station opening the box and sniffing deeply knowing the smell would permeate the work station instantly. It was the signal the girls had been waiting for as they both jumped from their chairs and started a tickling fight which could have ended very badly for the doughnuts had Ianto not appeared on the balcony right then. His shirt crumpled and his hair flatter on one side than the other he made Gwen stop and Tosh giggle.

"Hands off the merchandise girls" he shouted across the Hub, Jack flashed a thousand watt smile.

"Hey Ianto if you make the coffee I'll keep all the custard ones for you." Gwen punched Jack lightly

"You know the custard ones are my favourite"

Tosh just stood back "I'll even eat the apple ones if Ianto is making the coffee."

"You have a point." Said Gwen standing back "Besides I smell bacon butties to start."

"You can have the custard doughnuts Gwen" shouted Ianto, "I much prefer a good Danish, something about the way you get to swirl you tongue around the frosting." He said with a deadpan face that hid most emotions.

Jack smiled again and dumped the box in Gwens arms,

"Take it all down to the medical room, I love a good picnic but first I have something to deal with." He never took his eyes off Ianto and even as he walked slowly across the Hub floor their eyes didn't part.


	20. Chapter 20

Hey kids did you miss me?

Sorry it took a while, loss of Mojo and a holiday but I'm back now. Never fear it will be completed but I now have no idea where it is going!! Ah the joys of letting your imagination loose once in a while.

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Owen would never admit it but he enjoyed working in a partnership, Jack could tell as he watched him and Jenny working in the lab. He tapped his pen casually on a pile of reports he couldn't be bothered starting wondering if he only picked people with personality flaws or if Torchwood caused them. He was dragged out of his reverie by the quiet sounds of Ianto climbing the stairs, coffee time, he clicked the CCTV on to the Plass. Unobtrusively Ianto came through the crack in the door and proffered a mug of steaming Blue Mountain. Jack made space and noted the second mug on his tray, Ianto only brought his own drink in when he wanted to talk, Jack raised an eyebrow and quickly bent his head to the door and Ianto quietly closed it even though they were effectively alone in the vast main space.

Jack moved over to the sofa, another unwritten rule in their ever so difficult to separate relationship, desk was work sofa home. They sat next to each other in silence for a few seconds, savouring the smell of the fine coffee while each waited for the other to break the silence. Ianto broke first,

"Not that I am judging but did you snog her back into life like you did with me?" The smile let Jack know that it was said in jest but he also knew that humour might not fit this situation.

"I swear on your life I did nothing, perhaps it is just my electric charisma and the fact that this jaw line is just too much to leave behind."

Ianto smiled and punched him lightly on the arm and subconsciously moved a little closer so there was contact between them and Jack lifted an arm over his shoulder. They had started this relationship keeping work and home as very separate entities but over time they had realised the physical barrier wasn't needed. It made Torchwood bearable for both of them, sure when there was work to be done they got on with it but Jack had reasoned that as he was permanently on call and Ianto worked the longest hours of anyone he ever knew they might as well snatch the opportunity when it came along.

"Go on, say it." Said Jack after a pause

"What?" asked Ianto with a note of incredulity in his voice. He would swear Jack could do psychic, a conversation with Tosh after the Mary incident had planted that seed, Tosh had been worried about him but he had deftly turned the conversation away from him and she had let slip Jacks comment on scrabbling about in his head.

"What ever is on your mind, say it before you explode."

Ianto leant back and felt Jacks wonderful fingers stroking his upper arm through his suit, Jack had tried to get him into something a little more casual today but Ianto wanted to cover the bruises garnered from the numerous walls he had slammed into last night. Never show weakness, never want pity.

"What happened the other night?"

"Bygones Ianto, just a blip, completely over it. Finished."

Ianto sat upright and pulled away

"That wasn't the deal Jack, we said we would sort this together, you promised to let me help."

"Ianto I've sorted it, sifted and stored all the information. It won't happen again." Jack was lying, he never looked Ianto in the eye when he was covering something up. Ianto put a hand on his knee and waited till he had eye contact again.

"You said something about the Time Agency teaching you how to forget things but it was dangerous, has it happened before?"

"They stole two years of my life Ianto, in a time when two years were precious, I thought," his breath hitched, "I hoped that one day I might be able to unlock that part but now," He stopped and looked at the ceiling.

"But now you are worried what could be hidden behind there?" finished Ianto succinctly.

Jack said nothing but put his hand over the other mans and sat breathing deeply till Ianto lovingly pulled his head towards his chest, curling his fingers through Jacks hair while making a gentle shushing sound.

Ianto was in a dilemma, really he should let Jack tell him in his own time but every extra second he gave him he would be making an excuse not to let him in, building back up his defensive wall brick by brick.

"You do know I won't judge your past don't you" he said quietly "And you have more past than most of us." He said trying to make light of it.

"You don't know the half of it." Replied Jack quietly

"Which is what got us here in the first place."

They sat quietly again until Ianto spoke, it was always the way.

"Start with a happy time Jack, I dunno tell me about meeting Estelle, I know enough about her that you aren't going to open black hole into the future with that revelation."

Jack pulled up and looked directly at him,

"I don't want to hurt you Ianto, she's in the past now."

"How many times do I have to tell you Jack I understand I am not the first, probably not the last and some of the time not the only. I don't expect that you sat round for 150 years waiting for me, Ianto Jones Sex God of the Welsh Valleys, to appear, nor do I judge you on the fact that you come from a time when humans might act differently. What do you think would happen if I was transported back 3000 years? We were still living in mud huts and had only just discovered how to smelt metal so I can't even imagine the changes you had to go through."

"Do you know how much I craved them inventing the mobile phone?" asked Jack with a quiet chuckle. "Primitive but effective."

Ianto punched him lightly on the shoulder "Oi Stop dissing one of the technological marvels of my age."

"There are things out there that would blow you away, did you know that you are slap bang in the middle of the fastest growth of technology the world has ever seen?"

"I heard on the radio the other day that we have advanced more in the last 40 years than in the thousand before it." Said Ianto with a little awe in his voice "And all you can bring from the future is a tacky looking toy wrist watch."

It was Jacks turn to resort to mock violence, Jacks wrist toy had got them out of more than one scrape when 'primitive' state of the 21st century art PDAs had found it impossible to stay in one piece when dropped from a great height or while immersed in water. He would let no one see it or touch it and Owen had once joked that the reason Jack came back to life was to protect that damn wrist strap.

"Tell me something." Asked Ianto with a serious tone, running his finger over the cover and then sensuously round the inside of Jacks wrist. "How on earth do you keep the leather looking so supple, I could save me an awful lot of shoe polish."

Jack snatched his hand and tugged Ianto towards him catching him in a deep and sensuous kiss.

"Who said it was leather?" asked Jack cryptically when he finally let Ianto go.

Ianto looked back at him as he took a sip of the now cooling coffee and raised an eyebrow.

"Don't think I haven't noticed you changing the subject Jack." Said Ianto over the mug.

Jack loved that about Ianto, he could process a thousand things and still come back to the one that mattered, many times Jack had asked him an unanswerable question and three days later he would come back with a heavy file of carefully researched answers and start the conversation in exactly the same place he had laid off. Jack was much more superficial than that, he reacted and then parked it but that was what got him in this mess.

"Tell me where you met her, what you were doing, what brought you together, every detail Jack, all the good ones and any bad ones, how did you feel after you left her." Jack gave him puppy dog eyes but Ianto knew he couldn't give in. "Baby steps Jack we have a life time to go through everything but we have to begin somewhere."

Jenny had taken Owens proddings and pokings with an excessively good humour though three hours crunching numbers and searching every known database for answers had left her wacked. She didn't want to admit it but she still wasn't on top form. She was close to nodding off when Owen gave a holler of joy then shoved a wavy computer printout in her face.

"See told you nothing to do with nanobots." He said grinning as she took the paper off him. "Funky DNA is your answer, you have a fifth base that we mere humans don't"

"I see why Jack brought you here, too clever for your own good Doctor Owen Harper." She held out her hand and shook Owens heartily "But I have to say that is a brilliant pick up, pity we can't send it off to the Lancet, paper like that you could be set for life, the new Crick and Watson." She gazed at the paper and looked at the figures. "Does this new molecule have a name?"

"Not yet, the computer is doing the numbers at the moment and with a little help from a programme scavenged by Tosh from a small fragment thrown through the rift last year we should have a full pictorial of the structure by tea time." His smile was broad, some days were worth coming in for.

"Then I think we should call this new molecule Owenine." Said Jenny with a flourish.

"What you want a little piece of me flowing round your veins for eternity." He said arching an eyebrow.

She picked up a pencil and flicked it expertly with a swift motion of her wrist at his head.

"Putting it that way perhaps not." She said laughing until she started coughing and gasping for breath again.

Owen came round the desk quickly and pulled he shoulders back to allow a little more air to actually reach her lungs and break the vicious circle caused by the lack of oxygen. He swivelled the chair round and took her racing pulse quickly before visually checking the paleness of her face.

"Need something for the pain again?" he asked, doctor to fellow doctor, no need for fancy platitudes or explanations and no need on her part to even try refusing. As if he knew it would happen he whipped out a hypodermic from his back pocket and then crouched down while it took effect.

"Do you always carry controlled drugs in your jeans?" she asked quietly.

"With this lot you need to." He said sardonically gesturing back at the Hub.

After a few minutes she felt able to breath normally again and waved the paper clutched in her hand in Owens face,

"So what is your suggestion for this nameless molecule that makes me so special then?"

"I have no idea, but I know a man who will." He said sauntering out the door and shouting for "Teaboy" with a note of satire in his voice as it disappeared up the stairs.

Jenny put her head in her hands and took stock of what was happening, she had walked away from her last life thinking it would be the last time she would have to do it. Now she realised that The Rift opening up on cue to swallow her whole was a long shot and to be honest it had been so long since she had been to Cardiff she forgot that they had built a lovely new pedestrian Plaza over the spot. The last few years had been hard and the rise of computers was really starting to hinder her transition from life to life so she had stayed a little longer than normal and with a boss who was really annoying. Keeping her head down meant she couldn't ever take the step to becoming a consultant, she couldn't move out of the NHS Trust she was in because they would do background checks and there was only one way her git of a boss was going and that was in a wooden box. Even if he had dropped dead the numerous times she had silently prayed for it she would never be able to do the job properly, it would mean attending lectures and conferences where she might meet one of her former student colleagues and one of them was bound to notice she looked nearly as fresh today as she had in a cap and gown at their graduation. Not that she felt that fresh at the moment. She dragged a hand through her hair and was not surprised to find that more than was normal detached itself from her head and wrapped round her fingers. She needed time and space to think but at the same time was so desperately lonely she wasn't sure she could do this by herself, seeing the Torchwood Team happy together wasn't helping but she just had to snap out of it. She took a deep breath and straightened herself up before walking smartly to the door and up to the Hub.

She was able to stand for a few moments to watch as the team worked, Gwen tapping on the computer and throwing suggestions over her shoulder while Tosh held Iantos pond bound space junk with one hand and looked at Owens amazing discovery held in the other. She caught a hint of admiration in Tosh's eyes for that, though it might not just be about a new chemical compound. She saw them looking up at the closed office door and the knowing glance that went between them and the flick of irritation as Gwen shouted another preposterous suggestion at them. Suddenly they seemed aware of her and looked at her together as if some telepathic link linked them together – which knowing the energies running through the Hub and the Rift there could well be. Gwen ever the caring one rushed to help her to a chair but she used the extra arm to propel herself to Tosh's desk instead.

"May I?" she asked holding out a hand for the tooled metal box.

"We found it a few days ago but we don't know what it is." She said sheepishly, as if it was a personal failure on her behalf not to know what every piece of flotsam was.

"I say it a space brick." Said Owen dismissively

"I think it could be some sort of cremation urn." Said Gwen as Owen pulled a face and Tosh pulled her hand away quickly.

Jenny turned it over in her hand then asked for a small screwdriver to insert between one of the cracks. Owen was about to protest it could contain some evil sex gas when they heard a tiny hiss of hydraulics and a tinkley noise that could be from an underwater orchestra. She put the box down so they could all see the holograph it was projecting over itself and the contents.

"Oh pretty sparkly" said Gwen in a childish voice and putting her hand through the hologram "That tickles" she said taking one of the jewel like objects from the case.

"My guess goes for alien music box" said Jenny

"Are they what I think they are said Owen as he too tried to reach for the stones held inside but got a shock instead.

"It doesn't like you Owen." Giggled Tosh and reached in herself and handed him what looked like a princess cut ruby.

"How did you know?" asked Gwen.

"Seen one in London, took weeks before someone slipped with the screwdriver and managed it and yes Owen if it is the same they are real, how do you think they could afford Torchwood Tower?"

They all stood silent taking in the new information.

"I wonder if someone is looking for it?" asked Gwen sadly.

"I hope not." Said Owen "I always though this place could do with a bit of interior design."

"Whatcha playing with?" Asked Jack from the gantry, he draped himself casually over the rail while Ianto came down the stairs with the tray.

"Alien toys and about a million pounds worth of shiny rocks" said Owen casually.

Now that peaked Jacks interest, once a mercenary always a mercenary. Ianto put the tray down and came over to look, it was the alien toy bit that had caught his fancy, his achieves were full of unexplained objects and to be able to actually catalogue something properly would be a joy in itself. The two men advanced towards the box and realised three pairs of eyes watching them a little too intently, Jack also noticed Owen was rubbing his hand. Ianto picked the box up whole and moved it round to see the hologram better, Tosh wanted to scream at him to pick up a sapphire but she held herself in check, barely.

"What do you think it is?" he said looking at the moving form, there was a hint of humanoid with a touch of fish and what could possibly be described as a lions mane shimmering in the image.

"Don't think it would win a game of marry, shag or throw off a cliff do you?" said Owen

"My guess is from the Araxian quarter" said Jenny, Jack pursed his lips and nodded slowly.

"In which case we won't be looking for Mama anytime soon." Said Jack squinting at the figure.

"Why's that Jack?" asked Gwen turning an emerald over in her fingers, Jack reached in and picked out a fire opal, routed round and then found another and held them up to her ears.

"Their sun went supernova a few millennium ago." Said Jenny quietly.

They all sighed and Ianto put the box down and went to reach in but pulled his hand away swearing in Welsh.

"That didn't sound pretty." Said Jack suppressing the laughter more successfully than the others.

"Seems it doesn't like us real men" said Owen looking directly at Jack. Jack squirmed a little bit and shrugged.

"Perhaps it has personality issues." Suggested Jack trying to deflect the question as he noticed Jenny sniffing the air like a wolf. She moved round the desk and stood next to Jack.

"May I she asked?" but not indicating what she wanted permission for. Jack tensed and Ianto looked a little concerned but he nodded, there wasn't much that could phase him anymore. She sniffed a little harder round his ear and then softly ran her finger across Jacks forehead and licked it.

"Gross" said Owen loudly.

"Hormone lock" she pronounced. "My guess would be oestrogen, which would lead me to believe the species would be similar to honey bees mostly male with one alpha female and she would be the only one able to access the stones."

The team nodded and took in the information before one by one the added information clicked into place, Jack was the only one not staring, because it was hard to look at yourself.

"What? I've told you before, the pill is killing this planet, it's in the water supply" the answer was unconvincing and Owen opened his mouth but quickly closed it again when Jack scowled at him. Ianto raised an eyebrow and muttered "later" under his breath while Gwen and Tosh tried everything to avoid looking at anyone else.

"So is this what all the fuss is about?" Jack was trying to regain control with his masterful attitude.

"Oh no, there is this too." Said Tosh pushing the spectrometer printout across the desk. He looked intently at the readout and smiled,

"I think a conference is in order."

With that he started up the stairs and shouted an order for more coffee over his shoulder while turning the paper round in his hand. The team started shambling over to the staircase and then all three turned round to invite Jenny into the group, it was good to feel wanted.


	21. Chapter 21

Sorry It took so long folks (assuming anyone is still reading out there), new job, new house and a big lack of time. I hope this lives up to the high?? quality of the previous chapters and I promise it will be finished, it just might take a while!! ;-

Happy New Year folks

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Jenny wanted to sleep for a week, just like the other occupants of the room, Tosh was trying to explain the extra chemical in her blood stream and had lost her after the first five minutes or was it hours? By the way Jack was zoning out and Owen was texting something under the table, yes there was Gwen receiving the text, this was a normal occurrence. Tosh paused for breath and that was the only excuse that Jack needed to jump in clapping his hands to wake the rest of the team, only Ianto didn't jump.

"So no weird energy readings, no alien takeovers and all you have to do is steer clear of DNA tests and you should be fine."

"Standfast the fact she is actually an alien I suppose" said Ianto more to himself to than to the group, he looked up guiltily and scanned round the room for any sign of reaction.

"So what do we do with her now?" Asked Gwen

"Hello, still in the room" said Jenny wearily

"Oh sorry I didn't mean oh God that came out wrong I was only wondering how we hide you out in the big wide world." She said in one big breath turning red.

"I can manage, like I have for the last 500 years."

"I'm all for womens lib but that is taking it a little too far." Said Owen "Besides I haven't signed you off yet and we don't know what other effects our" He searched for the right word, "Erm, intervention might have."

Jenny put her head in her hands, she just wanted to escape to a warm bath and a bed that didn't have a drip stand attached, she couldn't remember a time when she had felt this bad. Now perhaps she could understand what her patients had been going through when they manked and moaned at her, of course she had felt tired before but never so tired she felt physically sick.

"Ianto book a room for the lady and drive her over, make sure she has every thing she needs." Said Jack with a smile.

"No glass box on level four then?" she asked with trepidation

"I've told you we're not like that anymore." Said Jack with a hint of menace, he got really edgy when people brought up the old days, he'd tried so hard to make it something the Doctor would be proud of, it had taken months to reassure Ianto that this Torchwood was not the shoot first ask later One that had nearly brought down the world. If only he had managed to break that shell a little sooner they might have been able to save Lisa, but then Ianto would never have been his. Jack suddenly felt ashamed at that thought.

"Level four is full." Said Ianto breaking the silence. "Though I could let you share with Janet, she gets lonely you know."

"You could come back to my place again" said Gwen trying to make up for her earlier faux pas

"I've got something organised, thanks all the same."

Tosh looked up and blurted out

"You can't do that, the police will be monitoring all your bank accounts, I might be able to change the data before they notice but they'll be looking for you when they see a transaction." She started stabbing at her laptop as if the world would end if she didn't change the records in a nano second.

"Not every bank account." She said quietly "I'm getting something delivered in your name to the tourist office." She looked at Ianto, "Very small, completely harmless, not alien at all."

"I already took the liberty of checking that." He said sliding a thin box over the table. "Very professional, couldn't have done better myself."

All the eyes followed the box but Jenny just left it on the table, she knew what it was and didn't need to see it, it just represented another passing life. She wondered idly whether you could equate it to the stages of bereavement, this was definitely depression Jack obviously never got out of anger. She could feel Gwen trying to x-ray the box by thought alone so she pushed it down the table and past Owen.

"You will let us know where you are staying." Said Jack in professional mode, "You know we could have taken care of all that for you, why is everyone so damn independent these days." Everyone round the table interpreted it as a personal affront over some past transgression and shot daggers at Jack for bringing that up again. Jack just slumped in his chair, one of these days he would regain control of his team. Gwen started cooing and giggling, a sure sign that whatever was in the box was shiny and expensive, he looked down and saw that the whole of the table was gazing at the black credit card, boy did this girl have connections flash that baby and you could buy a cruise liner on tick.

"Don't worry it's not hooky and I am coming back tomorrow, Owen and I have unfinished business."

Jack flipped the card over in his fingers, Ianto was right it did look very good and he should know, credit cards were still good for a con for many years to come yet.

He was about to dismiss the conference and let her go her own damn way when the rift alert sounded, he dropped the card back in it's expensive leather case and looked expectantly at Tosh as she deciphered the incoming signal.

"Small incursion, life form, local park." She said in staccato bursts, "Bringing up the CCTV now."

They all looked at the screen, it was nearly dark, the camera was only picking up the pools of light cast by the fluorescent street lamps round the pond.

"What we looking for the Lake Ness Monster?" asked Owen grinning, he noticed the rest of the team weren't laughing and was about to explain his very witty pun but something happened on the screen instead. A small shaggy dog scrabbled out of the pond dragging something in its mouth, an unfortunate duck if the head dragging on the tarmac path was anything to go by but nothing more.

"The signal is really strong it has to be in the camera angle." Tosh beat another symphony on the keyboard but came up with the same answer.

"Could it be underwater?" asked Jack squinting at the grainy image.

"No we would see it, the signal is moving it would cause ripples the water's only a foot deep." Her voice rose an octave as the problem defeated her.

"Try species 287723." Said Jenny quietly

Tosh beat a new rhythm on the keyboard and pulled up the achieved species database, Torchwood had been using computers to sort and store data for twice may be three times longer than the rest of the planet, so while women in white coats had used a computer the size of a house to calculate the simplest of wage bills Torchwoods sentient super processor had already mastered voice recognition and stored information on every extra-terrestrial being known to man, well Torchwood, and there were a few thousand more added each year. Each with an autopsy report. The computer processed the numbers and flashed up a file including a drawing of an evil spiky shelled turtle.

"You're saying that there is a Bowser running round the park, a real life Bowser." Said Owen with incredulity, he often thought that some games characters looked suspiciously like the things he ran after on a daily basis.

Jenny looked up and rubbed her temple

"Erm no try 32 instead."

Tosh bashed away again and this time a photo of a endearing dog like creature, shaggy and squat held in the arms of a smiling 30 something woman in a smart 50's twin set appeared. Which would have been unremarkable apart from the fact it was purple.

"Awh cute, you really think we have one of those in Cardiff."

"Cute unless you're a duck." Said Ianto reading through the blurb with it.

"Didn't you have a pair of those in One?" asked Jack

"They wanted them archived so we put them in the achieves under the code names Fred and Ginger. They tried to mate them with toy poodles to make permanently coloured dog but they were incompatible and Ginger caught distemper. Fred was hidden down there for about five years, pinned for his mate every day, we wondered if they were both the same sex but you couldn't tell, they were good with a litter tray though"

Jack chuckled at the thought, if anyone thought Ianto was precious about the vast vaults of alien scutter they should have visited the old warehouse by the Thames that would later be flattened to become the foundations for Torchwood Tower. One day over fifty years later he would pick through the rubble destroying what he couldn't carry while a young man dragged what was left of his girlfriend away unseen.

"Gwen, Owen deal with it. Tosh give them some support."

"Oh great now I get to be an alien animal collection agent, join Torchwood, save the world from being licked to death"

"Does he ever stop complaining?" muttered Jenny under her breath

Owen tilted his head and narrowed his eyes before being pulled away by Gwen

"Should we raid the armoury or just stop at the butchers on the way over." He said being pulled from the boardroom by Gwen and with Tosh bringing up the rear. Ianto suddenly realised he was being left behind and darted out on the pretext of providing some bait.

"Then there were two." Said Jack moving out of his chair and walking slowly round the table till he was stood behind her, she was too tired to face him. Sensing the tension Jack carefully placed his hands on her shoulders, unsure of how she would react and when she didn't move he started kneading her neck gently.

"We need to talk" Jack felt her tense again "I mean I want to talk to you, person to person, I just…" Jack was lost for words he was scrabbling about again to tell someone how he felt without letting them in, a vision of Ianto passed before him just waiting for him to speak.

"I mean I know my timing sucks but…" the statement hung in the air as he absent mindedly carried on walking his fingers round her spine

"How do you do it?" He asked simply.

"Do what?" she asked hissing as his fingers pressed on the open wound in her shoulder, it was still weeping clear fluid despite having closed rapidly after the laser burn only to reopen a day later. Jack quickly apologised and leant back on the table instead,

"You know, carry on, move around, live happily for 500 years when the people round you don't." He looked down at the floor feeling like a twelve year old, it wasn't often that he had to respect his elders anymore.

"You take what you can when you can, the first 300 years are the worst." She said with a smile.

Jack chuckled too, he could never really work out how old he was, 150 plus certainly but did he count the years stuck in the time loop? He'd stopped counting about the same time he stopped with the death count, if only he had the discipline to write diary like Ianto but then again he would never let anyone read it.

"Anyway life isn't all fluffy bunnies and chocolate kisses, there are bad times but when you don't have any choice but to get on with it, what's the point in moaning?"

"Amen to that." Said Jack quietly

"But it is better if you share it." She said quietly

"Remember that night in Arras? We talked for hours about what it meant to be alive, if only we'd known, God but we've missed out on so much."

"No I don't think we have Jack, imagine if you'd have known that I was out there all that time we would have felt bound to keep meeting, you'd have left Torchwood after what they did to me and you might never have found the answers you were looking for."

"How do you know what I was looking for?" asked Jack sharply "And how do you know I have the answer now"

"You look content." she said simply

"Life isn't exactly a bunch of roses round here, we're overworked, the Rift is only getting more active and we are ending up with all the terrestrial cranks the police can't classify." He remarked crankily, because he could never stay still he ran his fingers through his hair and flashed a grin. He quickly changed his face to a much more serious expression "But you aren't happy now are you?" asked Jack with amazing insight "Happy people don't hope that the Rift will open up and swallow them they run away from it and keep out of harms way."

"So what's your excuse then? 150 years of close proximity addled your brain." She said snippily

"Touché." Countered Jack chuckling to himself because she was closer to the knuckle than her wanted her to be.

Jenny dragged her head back up from staring at the table and looked at Jack with heavy eyes

"Sorry, I'm just so tired, physically and mentally, the last few years haven't been the same. I rejoiced when they invented the internet, then I cursed when I realised it made information easier to store and hiding harder. I just didn't know what to do anymore." Tears welled in her eyes and the floodgates opened, the stress of the last few days suddenly came to the surface.

"I think," her voice hitched "I think someone or something is on to me, I'm scared Jack, I'm scared."

Jack whipped out a box of tissues that he now kept in every room, Gwen needed them quite often, and pulled out a manly handful. She took them off him and started flattening them out, just like Ianto would thought Jack, then using a single flat sheet to dab at the corner of her eye. Jack watched as she fought to bring herself under control, it was like watching a 40's movie only he was seeing all the women of the time he had known. So different from now, Gwen told you exactly what she thought of you, even Tosh and all her Japanese manners occasionally got hissy but women of a certain age would stoically soldier on till they had a nervous breakdown. Progress thought Jack.

Jack sat for a few moments more then stood and pulled her into gentle embrace, which opened the floodgates again, he stroked her hair while she clung to him as the stress flooded out. Jacks shirt felt distinctly damp after five or so minutes when he saw Ianto peering through the glass door with a look of concern. He motioned for him to come in and gently pushed her away, lifting her chin to check she was fine. Ianto felt uneasy, he was only a partially reconstructed male, he understood his own emotions after a lot of coaching from Jack but women were worse than aliens, so god alone knows what a female alien was like.

"Get the lady a taxi Ianto."

Ianto stuck his hands in his pockets and fiddled round for his mobile,

"Where should I say it was going to?" asked Ianto

"St Davids." She said quietly

"You're right." Said Ianto after he finish his quick call, "Much better than anything Torchwood would run to, Jack never signs off on anything more than a three star."

"Never say never" said Jack giving Ianto a look that spoke volumes and for a nano second both men remembered a few snatched hours at somewhere rather special on the day they had to avoid themselves.

"Are you sure you are going to be okay by yourself?" asked Jack after the conversation they had just had. Ianto raised an eyebrow as he started to collect the coffee cups, if it was important Jack would tell him either now or later.

"I'd offer to drive you but the others have the SUV, my car is at home and Gwens car still needs a slight valet." Besides Ianto thought to himself he wanted Jack alone to wheedle more information out of him before he clammed up again.

"Thank you but I am enough of a nuisance, I think for a few days they should be off my tracks, depends if their photo recognition is as good as yours and how much of the network they've hacked."

"We'll put them off the scent till you decided on a next move, Tosh and Ianto do a good line in subterfuge, so good they worry me in fact." Said Jack chewing his lip ever so slightly

Ianto rolled his eyes and tutted under his breath

"It is what you pay me for." He muttered as if this was a common argument.

"Not all I pay you for" said Jack snatching at Ianto who deftly sidestepped him without even rattling the cups on the tray but fixed him with a scowl.

Jenny looked back and forth between the two men with slightly unfocused eyes and decided this was her key to leave, so slowly she stood holding the desk and took a deep breath.

"I'll go and get your things." Said Ianto his gaze never leaving Jacks till he walked swiftly over the thick pile carpet and down the stairway in an upright fashion that wasn't seen very often in the modern world of slouching and trainers. Jack put a steadying arm round her waist and steered Jenny after Ianto. He handed her a small plastic looking object, about the size of a keyring which she turned over in her hand.

"Call it a new age panic button, snap it, scream for more than 14 seconds or if your heart rate rises above 100 for more than 2 minutes and the cavalry arrives. Just don't take it to the gym and leave it in you pocket or get carried away in your own living room without taking your jeans off." Said Jack his voice trailing off as he remembered bursting in on more than one new team member when they least wanted an interruption, he smiled at the thought.

"I promise no gym." She said with a grin, she would be lucky to make it to the bathroom in her current state.

"And call in the morning Ianto will come and pick you up." He said as they reached the tourist office.

Two days ago and that statement would have had her running for the hills but now, well it sounded ok. Ianto offered her a battered case with an airport barcode for Orly hanging off it.

"I took the liberty of adding to your cover story, the name on the card looks French so I extrapolated that you could well be a lost French tourist, your passport is in the front, not the best I ever made and if they really want to go to town on it they will find that it seems to be mainly scuffed with Cardiff Bays finest ooze, but we can make sure that the reception staff don't look too closely for a few days."

"He is good." She said flipping the pages of the passport which looked suitably grubby with age.

"I only pick the best." Said Jack as Ianto playing the part of the concerned tourist official ushered the lost sightseer out the door.

"As I remember it I picked you." He threw over his shoulder waving as the taxi pulled away, how many Cardiffians knew they had a mini-cab firm staffed solely by aliens?


	22. Chapter 22

Big thanks to Bewildered Butterfly and Doctor-who-fangirl for reminding me why I am doing this.

Err this chapter gained a life of it's own and I have no idea how it got here.....

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Ianto and Jack sat at opposite ends of Iantos battered leather sofa, a big two seater it was large enough that they didn't have to touch, though Ianto had noted the fact that Jack always threw his long legs across the front of the sofa and that annoyed him slightly. There was something banal on the television, some detective story where the protagonist wasn't even revealed as a member of the cast till about two minutes before the dashing plod uttered the immortal words "And the murderer is…." before launching into a five-minute dash through all the obvious evidence in flash back. His mother loved it too, he called it car crash TV turned your brain into mush quicker than cocaine, he much preferred a good book, or a conversation or well didn't everyone prefer something else.

Ianto took a deep, loud breath through his nose and stretched like a cat - gaining the opportunity to kick Jacks leg quite viciously, accidentally on purpose and stood up.

"Coffee?" he asked standing in front of the goggle box and Jack flapped his arm to move him out of his line of sight.

"Haven't you been watching this? He's about to reveal the killer." Said Jack with the intensity of a true believer.

"Whatever, you stay there I'll bring it through" he said shuffling off to the kitchen.

He took the opportunity to open cupboard doors and bang them before whacking down mugs and coffee filters in a manner that could be interpreted however the receiver wanted. He wanted it to convey a slightly displeased but easy to solve note, Jack probably would take it as wind or worse not even notice. He fussed around cleaning an already clinically clean worktop and then stood looking at the kettle waiting for it to get to that sweet point just before it boiled, hot enough to really squeeze the flavour from the course grind in the cafetiere but not quite boiling so as to scald it. Normally he could clear his mind but tonight images of Jack just kept flashing through and he winced at the replay of what happened this afternoon and it just kept making him wince.

Ianto had bundled the Jenny woman into the taxi and stood by waving in a professional manner as it shuttled off into the twilight of evening, just as he had handed her into the back seat she had whispered to him

"Leave some time free tomorrow when you pick me up, you and I need a chat about Jack."

He was happy to admit normally he wouldn't take a blind bit of notice but he was already on edge about how much she might know and what it might reveal and if he was very honest with himself he was probably just teensy bit jealous, Jack had never held him like that when he had been crying. The kettle came close to the boil and he took it off the gas ring. Irrational thoughts zinged through his head as he lined the filter up over the glass jug, of course Jack had never held him like that, the one and only time he had actually let himself express the sadness that overwhelmed in the post Lisa days had manifested itself as a screaming rage with flying objects in the comfort of his own home, you could still see the marks in the plasterwork over the fridge if you looked carefully. Even if Jack hadn't still been mad at him for nearly ending the world, again, he didn't think a quiet sob and a quick rub of the back would have fixed anything. Instead when Ianto had finally managed to drag himself out of his flat to go down the corner shop for milk and a packet of crisps Jack had been sat in the SUV round the corner, whether he had been sat there everyday he didn't ask, Jack laid down the law, asked if he was alright and that was the end of that.

But this afternoon Ianto had walked back into the office, locked the door and pulled the blind even though there was an hour to closing. Without pausing he walked over to Jack and ground his lips against the older mans running his tongue round his closed mouth in what he could only imagine when he thought back was an attempt to see if he tasted of her. After a seconds pause Jack responded as fervently as him and started on Iantos tie, which was the trigger that snapped him out of it, god alone knew why he started it in the first place.

"What have I done wrong this time?" asked Jack pouting and proving that humankind would never be able to conquer insecurity.

"Nothing, it's me, sorry" he said backing off and making for the stairs

"Whoa." Said Jack and reaching out for his wrist and dragging him back "Getting all hot and bothered and then running off, that's my trick not yours."

"Like I said sorry Jack, mind on other things."

Jack stroked his fingers up and down the inside of Iantos wrist and looked directly at him, that intensity used to make him start to babble and give away every secret but he was now hardened to it.

"So tell me." He said patting his knee like a patrician Uncle, sitting down in the scratchy cloth office chair, that to Jack was a thrill in itself - he loved what he called proper office furniture, not the sleek leather and chrome that inhabited the hub.

"You first" said Ianto unmoving.

Jack tutted and stood up, "Back to that again are we, really Yan you're have to work a little harder to get the information."

"No Jack I shouldn't have to try at all, if I meant anything to you I wouldn't have to go through the twenty questions routine, I know more about that woman, thing, than I do about you."

Jack let go of him and they both pouted at each other for a second or two before Ianto resumed his journey downstairs, Jack decided to give him a little space and on the spur of the moment picked up the phone to reserve a table in a little place near by. Neutral ground and besides he was looking tired, Jack always offered to cook but his flair for using every pan in the kitchen infuriated the guy more than anything else he knew and besides life was too short for washing up. Her words were whizzing round in his head "Take what you can when you can", it could have been his motto years ago, the swing sixties were made for Jack Harkness but somewhere along the line it had turned from happy go lucky to careful and withdrawn. Outwardly and in the image he carefully crafted for the outside world nothing much had changed but he had definitely hidden something deep within his soul. For so long he had clung to the hope that the trip in the TARDIS would be the key to everything but it had only brought him more grief in the end. He picked up an "I Love Wales" pen and absent mindly started clicking it, couldn't do that with a fountain pen he thought irrationally, good job Tosh would shoot him twice a day. Perhaps talking wouldn't be so bad, I mean what was the worst that could happen, Ianto get all psyched out and leave him, bit of Retcon and he would have forgotten in the morning. He chastised himself for even having the thought, the answer was clear the only way to solve the problem was to give Ianto what he wanted, then Jack could have what he wanted.

Quietly he slipped back into the Hub and carried on down the emergency stairwell and into the archives to find the file he had been looking at just before it all happened. Perhaps if he didn't say it out loud it wouldn't seem so bad, perhaps Ianto would be able to work it out for himself and then stop asking. He walked along one of the lowest levels and stopped at an old fashioned fire extinguisher, in the rush of new technology that overtook the Institute in the bad times the original fixtures were forgotten. Like the door with a real lock on it, he fished the key out from behind the red cylinder and unlocked it. There were so many locked doors, passageways with dead ends and the odd sheer drop that there was only really Ianto that bothered going any further than the main storage. Gwen had tried following the remaining train tracks once, ended up getting soggy shoes and cobwebs in her hair so hadn't bothered again but even Ianto admitted defeat at locked doors. Had he known the reason Suzie's marvellous alien lock picking device was useless because the lock was so ludicrously simple or that a breath of wind could have knocked it down he would have been in there but like the good pupil he had been in the early days, meek, mild mannered, dependable, monster hiding Ianto, had believed the great God Harkness when he said it was impenetrable. Jack spent a few minutes finding one or two choice files from the six four drawer cabinets marked with his name and went quietly back to his office.

Ianto stood staring at the counter trying to work out what had happened earlier in the evening, with the orange Bison Frise installed in one of the cells to keep it safe from Myfanwy, they had all gone gratefully home. Ianto had gathered his things and made for the door, hoping that Jack would stop him but not really bothered if he didn't, should that tell him something he had thought. But right on cue Jack had shouted his name and seductively called the name of their favourite little eatery and he felt about three stone lighter again. They had left arm in arm across the Plass Jack carrying a bag he didn't normally have and carried on like every time but the earlier tiff sat like the elephant in the room. They talked mainly about the rest of the team, about the rugby scores, which Ianto knew Jack could only do because Gwen had given him some pointers earlier in the day, they even talked about what grade of room the alien formally known as Jenny would have taken in the hotel but there wasn't much to argue about with a card like that you could hire the whole hotel and still have change for a meal in their rather smart Bay view restaurant. So then they had gone onto the "If I had a million pounds" game and had ended up buying virtual yachts and Lear jets galore. Even so they had walked home in silence and had been strangely silent all the way through the brain numbing crime "drama".

The elephant padded up quietly behind Ianto in the kitchen and wrapped his arms around his waist.

"Hey, you've been stood staring at that pot for five minutes, you ok?" he asked resting his chin on Iantos shoulder.

Suddenly cold Ianto pressed the plunger down and turned round to face Jack.

"So who did it then?"

"The butler, always the butler." He said smiling at him

"Oh I thought for once it might have been the psychopath ex-lover that was carrying the axe every time you saw him."

He put the coffee on the tray with the mugs and tried to pass the tray to Jack so he could get some biscuits but Jack didn't take it.

"I have something for you, let me go get it."

Ianto took the tray through to the lounge and placed it on the glass-topped table, he placed the coasters in their places and waited. Jack didn't do presents very well, it was either something vastly elaborate that took weeks of preparation and involved everyone but the recipient which made them feel left out till it all came out, or was an item that could best be described as being as pleasurable to the giver as the receiver.

Jack came back in the room with the rucksack and sat a little closer, fiddling self-consciously with the straps before handing Ianto the manila folders. Ianto breathed an inward sigh of relief, no 24 hour garage flowers to arrange artfully till they died a day later, and turned over the dog eared folders trying to work out why something Torchwood related could be pleasurable.

"I hope this might answer a few of the questions you have." He slid his fingers over Iantos, caressing them gently as he opened the file to show the front page, personnel details and an old photo. "Quite a looker wasn't I?"

Ianto looked from the page to Jacks face and momentarily felt scared at what could be unleashed, the thought flashed through his head that perhaps the status quo was fine and that he didn't want to know anymore. He looked at Jack who nodded back at him as he turned the page.

"You don't have to Jack, really" he faltered "I shouldn't pry into things that don't concern me."

"I want you to, I need you to. I can't explain this." He waved an expansive hand across the top of the folders "So I picked out a few of the interesting years to start you off." He reached in his shirt and took a long chain out from under the crisp white t-shirt and pooled the tiny chain of linked balls over the top of the key in Iantos hand. "If it doesn't bore you to death there are about 150 more of those in the basement. Just do me a favour and keep it you yourself, a man my age needs some sort of mystery around me."

Ianto looked at the old-fashioned brass key and then placed the chain around his own neck before reaching over and gently and bringing their lips together. No bruising clash this time, just a kiss full of love that made Jacks heart soar to the heavens and let him know he had done the right thing. Jack pulled away and looked deeply into his lovers eyes, savour the moment indeed, try to fix this one blip in time so it could return whenever he wanted to remember what it was to be wanted. He kept his inside hand over Iantos and reached forward for his coffee, he could feel Ianto was itching to open the files and see what titbits he had brought tonight. He took a long draft of the dark brown liquid and nearly as quickly spat it out again,

"Is this decaff?" He asked in the same tone he used for mass murdering cannibals

"I didn't think you would be able to tell." Mumbled Ianto "I didn't really want the rush at this time of night, I'm really tired tonight."

Jack took a much more reasonable sip and saw Ianto was already engrossed in, he turned his head upside down to read the date, 1962. Jack could remember most of that year, man had just made it into space, the Beatles were a little know foursome from the north and somehow Jack found himself on a Caribbean island looking for the source of what were originally thought to be rift particles. The monitoring equipment was later modified to distinguish hidden Soviet ICBMs from rift radiation, and Torchwood communication protocols revised to ensure that the US couldn't get the wrong end of the stick and cause hysteria and world destruction anytime soon. He still couldn't look a Mojito in the face without getting cold shivers.

He gulped down the rest of the mug and put it back down on the low table before springing upright.

"I'm going to leave you to it." He said a little self-consciously.

Ianto put the folders down and looked at him

"Oh I didn't mean to ignore you, I'll leave them for now"

"No I want you to look, or I wouldn't have brought them." He paused "look the truth is I don't want to remember the past, I don't want to read about it and I don't want to be reminded in case…"

"The same thing happens again." Ianto motioned for Jack to sit down again, this time a little closer, "And if it does we'll deal with it together, it's time to stop hiding Jack."

It was a tempting offer, but it was going to take some time to think about.

Ianto could sense the indecision and put the files to one side, the truth was he wouldn't be able to take the dry clipped Torchwood style for any more than about ten minutes before he fell asleep.

"Perhaps now isn't the best time, but don't think you're getting out of it Harkness, tomorrow we finish at some sort of normal time and then we work on these together, here where it's safe. Is that an acceptable compromise?"

Jack thought about it for a second or two, then nodded like a chastised school boy gripped the other mans hand a little tighter, it was a long time since he had felt gut wrenching fear like this but with the right person by his side he also felt he would be able to get through it.

"Still going back to the cold and lonely Hub then?" asked Ianto with a smirk.

Would serve him right if he did get up and walk out now, but there was no point in cutting your nose off now was there?


	23. Chapter 23

The Rift was being good for once, the morning clear up was negligible and dealt with by each of them on their way into work, Weevil sightings were nil – obviously the recent rain had provided them with enough of whatever they ate that humans were safe from becoming breakfast. Gwen had taken the opportunity to go shopping, again and Owen was catching up with a particularly messy post-mortem and he was loving it. Tosh would have liked everyone to think she was working on the new algorithm she had shouted loudly about as everyone had come in, but she was having more fun teaching the newly named Barney, after the only other purple creature Ianto could think of – a kiddies dinosaur, tricks for pieces of duck. So far he had managed the roll over and die and a back flip, though on reflection that could have been a happy coincidence due to the fact the purple creature had backed down the step and fallen very gracefully.

Ianto, as always, had passed round coffee as required and then disappeared down into the achieves so no one had commented when instead of taking the left hand fork he had veered right. The files he had carried out of Jacks office also seemed normal because he always cleared up after the boss and his administrative nonsense, the files had returned in the same bag they left in carried in before anyone else had arrived. Ianto returned the carefully chosen saccharine files to the correct filling cabinet and instead opened the top drawer of the oldest looking cabinet and pulled the first five out before carefully closing and locking the door, replacing the key beneath his shirt, next to his skin. He then returned to the artifacts room and returned some of the pieces the team had been playing with recently to their boxes, he was looking forward to finding out what various pieces might do and where they came from. So much knowledge had been lost from London, the knowledge that put things into order and a true archivist craved order. His reverie was broken by the buzz from his mobile, he took the message quickly and walked out of the high ceilinged vault setting the lock out of habit and jogged back to the main Hub.

"I'm off to collect our guest." He shouted upto the office and the Hub at large before nearly tripping over Barney. He snatched the SUV keys and disappeared.

He parked the heavy black vehicle and walked into the beautiful hotel entrance with a spring in his step. The thought that he was going to be able to help Jack face a few of his demons, that Jack would even let him in was over riding the fears he had about what this woman was about to reveal. He was floating so high on his own personal cloud that he walked straight past his passenger until she shot out a gloved hand and caught the cloth of his sleeve. He stopped in his tracks and took a look at the body connected to the hand. Wearing an immaculately cut black skirt suit, three quarter length sleeves, a slight slit in the straight pencil skirt showed a little of the sheer fabric of the thin stocking but the eye was drawn away by the grey embroidery, shot with a little silver thread. The tight black leather boots were polished just enough to show care but not as much as to appear military and her hair was swept up in a classic pleat, with no outward sign of what was holding it up. Ianto cast a professional eye over the cut of the cloth, he was certain that it hadn't been in her purchases with Gwen, Jack had made him go through the bags to see if anything could explain her dire condition, and everything marked it as high-value couture

.

"Bonjour Mademoiselle, votre voiture est ici" he said in perfect French, truly he was wasted at Torchwood sometimes.

"Merci" she intoned and started to put on another new and exquisite woollen coat, Ianto went to assist as her shoulder was still stiff, he would have to ask about that. He escorted her quietly from the building, noting the extreme deference exhibited by all of the staff, sycophantic in fact. He opened the door and gave a helping hand as she glided into the passenger seat of the SUV, unlike Gwen who took it like a climb up Everest every time she got in the car, and closed the door before getting in the drivers side and starting it up with the imprint of his right index finger – a lesson on security from their jaunt into the wilds of Wales. He clicked his seat belt and turned his head slightly to view the lonely looking woman sat next to him, somehow in the vast, beefy space that was the inside of the SUV she looked very fragile.

"Who do they think you are actually?" he asked as he swung out of his chosen parking space.

"Very rich daughter of a European Princeling, or possibly love child of an Arab Sheik, whatever they are only bothered about the money." She sighed "Never mistake toadying for friendship."

Ianto chuckled, he had worked in a hotel during his university years to try and pay some of the bills and knew exactly what she was saying.

"Did you get a good nights sleep?" asked Ianto to make conversation

"I spent a lot of time thinking, but I feel much more rested. Based on the experiments Owen and I conducted yesterday I have a few more days till things are back in equilibrium, I wasn't expecting to sleep like a baby."

"I noticed your shoulder looked stiff." Said Ianto looking ahead at the empty road that followed the side of the Bay, the less salubrious bits that were yet to be gentrified, but that wasn't the question he wanted to ask, he wanted to know why she had spoken to him yesterday and why they were now alone.

"Hip's worse, boy when Torchwood do a number on you they want you to remember."

He carefully pulled the car off the main road onto a patch of waste ground looking out over the Bay and turned off the engine.

"Have you had breakfast?" he asked tilting his head at a burger wagon parked in one corner of the makeshift car park. "They make the most amazing breakfast baps, but the coffee is straight from the bottom of the Bay."

She chuckled and followed him out of the car and over to the hatch in the side of the white van, there were a few local trades men and delivery drivers scattered round munching on the second breakfast of the day, their wives would wonder how they never lost weight on their diet of skimmed milk and muesli. Ianto ordered as Jenny stared over the Bay coming back quickly with a piping hot meal in a bun.

"We used to have these regularly but we sort of went off them after an incident a while ago, Tosh never really liked them." He said cryptically then biting into the thick bun, stepping back to avoid the egg yolk now dripping from the bread. She said nothing, working her way round the bun in a far more lady like fashion, the suspense was killing him.

"Err you said you had something to tell me, about Jack, yesterday as you left."

"Sorry to disappoint you Ianto, the man is an enigma, I probably can't tell you more than you already know. What I said was I wanted to talk about Jack, big difference."

Ianto contemplated the philosophy of what she had just said trying to hold back his disappointment, that combined with the break through of the night before and he thought he would crack the Jack problem. He finished the last morsel of bread and wiped his fingers on the paper napkin before screwing it up in a ball and missing the bin.

They walked slowly to a bench, mistakenly new age in a place that was still _"__under development" _and sat so they could still see the SUV.

"Before I go off on one I need to check I'm not off the mark completely, you are more than just colleagues aren't you?"

Ianto shifted a little uncomfortably, he never liked that question, the answer was of course yes but it was the clarification afterwards he always hated. Were they partners, was he in love, was Jack even bothered about him apart from a physical need, the relationship wasn't developed enough to even dare voice the question. He decided on the easy reply

"We have indulged in recreational activities together."

"And you have no idea where you stand." She finished his thought for him.

Ianto looked intently at the gravel of broken bricks for a few seconds and nodded very slightly.

"I have no idea what drives Jack, I can't answer questions about his past in the main and I have no idea where he actually comes from and I only know one person, no perhaps two that might." She looked at him "I have to be really careful what I say here because I get the feeling he keeps his cards close to his chest, as is his right, and I suppose I do know more about him than average, well up to when it all happened." Ianto inclined his head a little and reminded Jenny of one of her previous cats a beautiful white tomcat who would sit and listen to her prattle on all day as if for all the world he understood what she was saying.

"What I'm trying to say is I'm probably the only person you will ever meet that can claim to be older than him,"

"Probably" interrupted Ianto

"Probably the only person or probably older?" she asked and then realised it didn't matter. "Look living while those you know and love around you die brings a unique set of challenges and I don't know if Jack has had enough time to grasp that yet, but I think it's bothering him, so I think you might be the one to help him see what he needs."

Ianto suddenly grasped why she had metaphorically pulled him to one size, she'd done this before which could mean another person with more than one birthday card from the Queen, or she'd done this for Jack. He mulled this over in his mind and the cogs clicked to discard the later, they hadn't met in the best part of ninety years and he had spent about five years actively avoiding another one of her guises. So that left him with the thought that there were more extra-terrestrials living out there, the Institute in him wanted to hunt them down, the slightly re-constructed Three in him wanted to find them and ask more questions to fill in the gaps, well gaping holes, in the database.

"Earth to Ianto." She said touching him on the arm, "If it's too much for you to take in right now you can get in touch later."

Ianto shook his head, this was like gold dust anything to give him a head start chipping away at Jacks heavy shield. "Why don't you want to help him through this?" he asked

"This isn't a quick fix and I don't want to hang around for the moment and it strikes me you are in this one for the long haul. That's really important when your personal long haul is forever."

Ianto nodded and looked across the Bay, the Plass was hidden from view at the moment but he knew Jack was there, like he had been for the last 150 years on and off and would probably be there for 150 more, unless the 21st century really was when it all happened.

"I've never wanted to pry, what Jack does is upto him, I tell him everything and he tells me nothing. I always thought it was because he didn't want to jinx the future but now I think he might have hidden from himself."

"When you are different to everyone else you try to fit in, normal people do not talk about what it was like to wear a corset every day, normal people don't want to know what it's like to grow old and they don't want to hear it from someone who isn't about to go through the same thing. All humans want to think they are unique but in reality for most people it is just a recurring loop."

Ianto digested the last statement, he could have taken it as a slight against the dominant species on the planet, of which he was a part, but after a few years of Torchwood he took it in the spirit it was given.

"So were you special where you came from?" asked Ianto wanting to avoid the more obvious question she was leading up to.

"Don't think so but you don't take much notice during situation normal. From what I remember it was a fairly sterile life, perhaps we were more advanced and had lost the pleasures of life, perhaps we never developed them, matches were chosen for genetic variability, work happened at an efficient pace, pleasure was regimented, it was a bit like the Jetsons, jumpsuits that didn't waste cloth, everyone was the same size because that was the most healthy. So imagine being picked up as the planet is exploding to be dropped in the middle of 16th century France, not understanding any spoken or written language and seeing something that looked like you but changed so quickly."

"How did you cope?" asked Ianto, he was beginning to grasp why she wanted to talk to him.

"They thought I was some sort of idiot and sent me to a convent. They treated me very well, I learnt to understand human language and one of the novices taught me to read during some of the services and I was going on to become a Nun myself. Was a good place to be then you know, the only place women had a little autonomy."

"What happened?"

"Well someone noticed I still looked like the 13 year old that had been brought in years before hungry and dirty and decided I was probably the devil incarnate so they exorcised me, said a few prayers for my eternal soul and beat me to death with a crucifix, well they weren't to know it wouldn't work, and threw my body out of the Convent. Suppose I should be grateful they didn't know about vampires or I might have got a stake in the heart."

Ianto was horrified at the matter of fact tone she used to describe the horrors she had gone through. He had heard the same tone when Jack started talking about death, so matter of fact. Oblivious to Ianto's state she carried on.

"One of the best things that happened to me, crawled into a tourney field nearly got trodden on by the biggest damn horse you have ever seen and was rescued in true damsel style by Hervi. We worked it out together he and I, we started as man and wife, never had any children of our own but at that time parents died in battles, dysentery, small infections turned to septicaemia in the shake of a head so you picked up a waif and called it your own. Three sons and two daughters like that, we moved every few years, different tourney here, new court, squire for a lord there and as time moved on I became his daughter, then a nurse. We lived round here at the end, The Marches were a good place for a knight to ply his trade then the fog swallowed up all traces of you. It was hard watching them all grow old and leave me. I didn't think I would ever get over Hervi, I would go back to his tomb every few years, I had a carving of me put next to his on the top of the tomb, an empty coffin filled with everything that he had given me. Came in handy that, I was sent back to that area of France by the SOE I told people that I had an interest in medieval carving, I would sit and talk to him and I know he was listening because when I was running from the Germans I ran to the church and laid against the stone sarcophagus and it collapsed under my weight showering me with gold and centuries old trinkets, bought me some time and a different transport from the Nazi commander, they just starved me instead of shooting me."

Ianto digested what she was saying and wondered what it was supposed to mean to him and his relationship with Jack.

"How did this man, Henri, feel when he realised he was going to leave you?"

"Hervi" she corrected. "We were lucky in some ways I wasn't sure what would happen, in the best part of fifteen summers I hadn't aged a year so we knew I was different. Medieval France was still a place where you could believe in magic, that was when I started collecting myths and stories about a strange man in a blue box." She turned to look at Ianto and checked his face for understanding, as always Ianto was wearing his heart on his sleeve. "Be there for him, listen to him and remind him he is different and that's ok. Tell him often that the only time to worry about is now but if the past worries him and the future holds demons then you work them through together."

"Jack holds it all in, says he doesn't want to burden me with the past, I think he worries about changing the future too. I think he thought his Doctor would have all the answers but he doesn't talk about that, least not when he's awake."

"I've had long debates about time travel and it always comes down to the fact that if you are from the future any thing you do in the past would change how you got there so you can't change anything, so the future is as set as the past. Except if you're a Time Lord of course"

"The Quantum Paradox" said Ianto

"Ah you took notice during training, then you will also perhaps remember then that you were told that Torchwood had the perfect source of information."

Ianto's breath hitched as he realised what she was saying, if Jack truly was from the future he would have known that there were two wars ahead of him, the atom bomb was about to be invented and used and god knows what the 21st century did hold. He shivered.

"Information is currency, the exchange rate was pain, Jack had a high rate deposit account which the Institute didn't dare make too many withdrawals because when they did he froze the account."

"So that's how Jack, better known as Gerald, ended up at the Somme, hiding in plain sight." Said Ianto with his highly developed sense of reasoning and logic. "So what does all this mean?" asked Ianto as his reasoning high a brick wall at high velocity.

Jenny gave a small snort and rubbed her cold hands together.

"It means you're dammed if you do and damned if you don't – I told you I didn't have answers"

Ianto rocked forward and held his head in his hands, pulling at his hair as he processed the new information. He hadn't thought that Jack had a reason for holding back, he just thought it was Jack trying to be enigmatic. He also hadn't thought through the consequences for Jacks well-being. This was going to take some thinking about.

Ianto's phone beeped loudly as a message came thorough, he sat upright and pulled the phone from his inside pocket.

"Jack wondering where you are?" asked Jenny

"Yep, how'd you know that?" he asked

"Could feel the sort of angry tone coming through."

They both laughed as Ianto pocketed the phone again and sat back.

"Come on then driver, enough of the small talk it isn't exactly tropical out here." She rubbed a hand companionably over his shoulder. He stood and offered a hand to help her up, she straightened her skirt and they walked back to the SUV and set off for the bear pit.


	24. Chapter 24

Jenny winced as the alarm went off to remind everyone inside the cog door was opening.

"Do you go through this every time?" she asked stepping carefully into the cage before Ianto pushed open the metal grill.

Tosh looked up and smiled, glad to see a new face and raring to explore new theories. Gwen leapt up from her seat in front of the bank of computer screens she barely understood, she could see Tosh was about to launch into full on tech mode and she for one had other questions that needed answering.

"You look so much better." Said Gwen quickly grabbing her waist and steering her away from Torchwoods resident geek, Jenny winced as Gwens hand connected with the scar on her hip which launched Gwen into a tirade of apologies. The whittering brought Owen up from his sunken pit which allowed Ianto, as always to quietly slip away.

Jack was brought out of his office by the commotion.

"So you decided to come back" he said smiling broadly. Part of him had expected her to do a moonlight flit, he would have, and he wouldn't have blamed her.

"Lets do lunch after my team have used and abused you." He took his coffee from the tray as Ianto came gliding by, she smiled and nodded as three of the team started to move in each with their own agenda. It was like a wolf pack going in for the kill, he chuckled to himself as he took the stairs two at a time hollering for Ianto as he went. If the archivist liked filing he had an enjoyable morning ahead, he looked at his watch, well the hour that was left, where had the boy been? Jenny took an involuntary step back,

"Mine first I'm afraid, medical imperative." Said Owen airily. He was going to beat Tosh into a purely factual reason for her continued existence without resorting to alien tech, the analyzer down in the basement didn't count. Jenny quickly fled to the autopsy bay and rolled up her sleeve.

It took less than twenty minutes for Owen to complete the tests he wanted to do, things were going in the right direction they both agreed but swirling the vial of blood still looked like weak Ribena. After changing the dressing on her hip Jenny declined the opportunity to participate in an alien post mortem, it was one of the few times she had seen his eyes sparkle. Walking slowly up the stone steps she was marvelling at the changes in the centre of the Hub, lost in her own world she nearly walked into a beaming Tosh who saw a fellow scientist ready to discuss the wonders of an extra-terrestrial world. What she wanted to show her was the research she had put together on the energy flows she had recorded around the various deaths and resurrections that had occurred in the Hub. She took Jenny to a work station off the main Hub, she felt a little weird replaying Owens and Jacks deaths where they could see them. Together they played with a few different calibrations while Tosh tried to gently pump her for information, but Jenny gave away very little that she hadn't already found out about through an all night sift of Torchwood databases.

If Jenny hadn't been thinking of an exit strategy after an hour with Tosh, watching her own near death, twice, would have sealed it. However she was a scientist and increasing the resolution of the energy scan to prove that there had been a minute flicker of energy left as they all walked away, a spark of energy as Jack touched her forehead when he was wiping away the dried blood had caught her interest. An idea was forming as she watched, then re-watched Owens return from some place beyond

"Have there been any other near deaths in the Hub since you installed this system?"

Tosh tutted, she didn't really have long enough to list them all, she wondered if Lisa and Myfanwy counted.

"Start with the team members past and present, long list I know but it's a beginning."

"I suppose Suzie must be a prime candidate, but she died outside."

"Pair of genius like us should be able to retrospectively engineer a solution to show any energy surge."

"Genii" said Tosh quietly.

"Geniuses" countered Jenny. This was an argument that could run for days.

"Tosh love, your computer is getting really annoying" said Gwen sticking her head round the corner. "It keeps beeping and we don't know why, Ianto is wandering round with his hockey stick again."

Tosh sighed "What beep exactly?"

"Sounds like the funny noise the contestants used to get on catchphrase."

"Oh, it shouldn't be doing that" said Tosh quickly walking off her boot heels tapping rapidly across the metal gantry. Jenny smiled self-consciously and Gwen smiled back

"Really I could have managed a few more minutes" said Jenny with a smile

"No really I'm about to fling her bloody computer into the Bay." She said adding her gap tooth smile "Ianto's ordering lunch if you're interested." With an upward intonation which Jenny couldn't decide whether it sounded Bristolian or Neighbours.

"I've been promised a lunch date."

"Don't let Ianto hear you, he's the jealous, repressed type" said Gwen with a mock serious face

"Stores it all up and then massacres the village?" Said Jenny smiling, it wasn't reciprocated and she knew she had hit a nerve, she grimaced and then walked towards Gwen grabbing her arm as she left the room. "Where's expensive? I think Torchwood owes me."

Tosh was tapping furiously at her keyboard as the males of Torchwood looked on in various states of concern. Owen was twirling a pen and looking over his shoulder, mostly he wanted the stupid noise to stop, Ianto was standing at Tosh's left arm trying to follow the steps she was taking so he could stop the really annoying game show noise and Jack was genuinely concerned at the apparent sudden activity of a non-terrestrial nature.

"I set this programme a few months ago. It monitors low levels of alien or rift energy that aren't normally trouble." She pushed her glasses back up her nose and smiled, she didn't feel the need to finish the sentence as it was obvious to her what the answer was.

"So if they aren't normally trouble why would you bother to monitor them?" drawled Jack leaning back because he knew they could be in for a long ride.

"Well single episodes would be too small for us to deal with all the time but these seem to have a pattern, so perhaps they are part of something bigger."

"So what set off the programme today?"

Tosh tapped again and shook her head before tapping again, Ianto got impatient and tapped something on the keyboard over her shoulder, the computer squealed again and brought up a map.

"I was just about to say" spat Tosh tapping for effect "That four objects with rift partials on them just suddenly appeared but there is no rift activity in the area."

"QED Business Park, Pontypridd, the rift doesn't extend that far." Said Ianto

"Objects coated in rift partials do not just appear without a rift activity being logged." Said Jack as a statement of fact.

Tosh bashed away at the keyboard, hit the sensitive touch screens of her console like she was wearing oven gloves and still came up with no explanation.

"Could have been shielded and uncovered." Piped up Jenny from Gwens desk.

Jack spun on his heel and fixed her with a look that screamed 'how could you know more than me'?

"Nope, technology hasn't been invented on earth and we would know if a ship big enough to get here from the far side of the galaxy - where they do have the technology was hanging round."

"Could have come through the rift itself?" said Ianto

"And then it would be covered in rift particles Sherlock." Countered Owen, Ianto scowled at being beaten.

"Again assuming the ship is visible." Said Jenny steadily.

Jack looked at her with hooded eyes, he really didn't like it when someone else had the answers.

"Well we'll never find out sitting round here, Ianto get the wheels, and meet us up top, I'll have to rain check that lunch."

Jenny waved a hand in supplication as the team all hared off in different directions, a well formed ballet that climaxed in a synchronised exit through the old Victorian cog door. Time to go exploring thought Jenny.

The vaults were extensive and little changed from Jenny's memory, except back in the day there had been an army of archivists and an Olympic sized typing pool to write up the reports the boffins produced. Ianto had proudly shown her the front two rooms, each the size of an indoor tennis court and filled with the flotsam sent through the rift or transported by the odd passing alien but they only contained the stuff he had been able to catalogue. When she had wanted to go further Ianto had tried to put her off, wanting to go back to the Hub but she finally convinced him to take her a little further down the corridor to the fifties area. It was the earthquake that did most of the damage, the vibrations from the building of the barrage, he wrung his hands as she pushed open the door. The cobwebs were holding together most of the boxes and some of the shelves were beyond repair, she could tell the damage wasn't all from natural disaster the blood in splatters showed where someone had taken their anger and vengeance out on themselves or worse someone else. Something happened around the Millennium explained Ianto, he hadn't yet got sufficiently ahead to start on tidying up and re-cataloguing these artefacts, he didn't know what most of them were, the file room had been flooded.

Jenny walked round picking up one or two small pieces and putting them back on the shelf, she smiled and picked up picked up a small plastic McDonald's toy, it was from the third Shrek movie.

"I wondered where that went, Bloody Owen I banned him from coming down here." Said Ianto, he could remember the day vividly, about two years before – he hadn't been there long – Owen and Suzie making fun of him for looking like the green ogre and throwing the toy around, hitting him with it on more than one occasion.

"We picked it up from the floor of the lowest corridor in about 1950." She blew the dust of ages from it and looked on the wonky shelving unit and found it's original box, full of Transformers, My Little Ponies, toys and kids watches of all descriptions. "Had a penchant for Maccy D's at one time did you?" she asked handing over the dusty box.

"Still do when we're sick of pizza." He said marvelling at the toys he had assumed he had thrown out over the years, he had always insisted there was a black hole under the coffee table. "You don't remember a silver engraved fountain pen do you?" he asked, it had been a special present from his dad, one day he had leant over to pick up a pizza box and it had fallen from his pocket. She started picking her way over boxes, careful not to step on anything important, half way down the room she stopped and picked up a box to read the faded contents, it was empty the contents probably at her feet somewhere.

"1952/55367#2 Silver pen like object, deep etching, possibly alien language. Signed out then signed back in July 1957, let me guess it was a cartridge pen?" Ianto nodded. "Would have foxed the life out of them, ink in plastic, must be down here somewhere."

At that point Ianto had returned to Jacks calls and Jenny didn't really feel up to scrabbling round floors, but now she was feeling better, imagine a room full of objects sucked back nearly 60 years, there must have been some heavy activity a few years ago, she was going to find that pen and then start returning the objects to order, re-write the information cards and clean up, she owed some of her colleagues that for the memory and Ianto for his kindness. It was a wreck in that room and the dust was chocking in parts but she went over the shelving unit where she had found the empty box and started to scan round the floor. Jenny had retrieved all the boxes she thought had come from the trashed shelving unit and cleared away the broken wood, cutting her hands to ribbons, remembering too late that she wasn't going to heal in her normal fashion. After arranging the boxes in a line across the cleared space she started throwing the artefacts in the correct box to clear the floor, if they had survived an earthquake they could take a three foot drop as they arched into from her hand to the floor. After half an hour of picking up the broken pieces she still hadn't found the pen but imagined she had made a sizable dent in the mess. When she stood up and surveyed the damage she realised she was fooling herself, coughing fit to bust a lung through the dust she decided to make a cup of coffee.

As she progressed back up the corridor she could hear a buzzing noise that seemed to be getting louder. Opening the last door the buzz turned into a whining scream pitched at just the right intensity to really annoy, it was coupled with flashing lights and a warning message scrolling across every computer screen. Automatically she banged a few keys at Tosh's station and tried the old standby of Ctrl, Alt, Delete, as it expected it didn't work but it did bring up the password request window. Jenny flicked through the open drawers looking for a Post-it with her password on it, but came up blank. She spun round on the spot trying to work out which one of this team that she had yet to really sus-out would be stupid enough to write down a password for a top secret organisation, she quickly decided it was likely to be any of them. As the noise seemed to increase in intensity she had a sudden brain wave, she went back to the computer and tapped in a long code. After a few tense seconds the screen saver disappeared and an old fashioned DOS page opened up, Jenny smiled as it was replaced with a web based form. Quietly she thanked whatever alien had provided the technology 70 years ago to build a super efficient semi-sentient computer that had remembered the backdoor code she had put in the system when she was building it. She also thanked the fact that most Torchwood employees of the time had no idea what she was doing so when they wiped the rest of her details from planet Earth they hadn't known about this one.

The form had the address of the business park on it and a large red flashing button that had the word Acknowledge written across it in yellow, she clicked on it and immediately the noise stopped and the bank of screens all changed into maps and building outlines. She sighed and rubbed her forehead trying to release the tension that the blaring sirens had caused. She scanned the information biting the inside of her lip as she realised why the alarms started, feeling round in her pocket she pulled out the alarm Jack had given her. What Jack obviously hadn't mentioned was that it could also tell the difference between sleep and unconscious. She looked at the other screens which were all the information she needed to get to the source of the alarm, maps, CCTV, satellite views and plans of the building, one screen was blank except a set of scrolling numbers which looked suspiciously like the access codes and GPS co-ordinates for a military satellite.

Jenny looked round the desk and quickly found the hand held device she needed, information on the screen was no good if she was going to help out in the wider world. Just as she worked out how to get the maps downloaded the final screen flashed into life, it was an infrared view from above, god knows how much rocket fuel that took to reassign. Superimposed over the last known plan of the building it showed three heat signatures ringed in blue, no one was two bodies close together, from directly overhead it looked like one was standing, two were sitting very close together by one wall and another was laid full length close to another internal wall, not moving. There were three other heat sources ringed in red, unknowns all standing. Jenny clicked again looking for the final heat signature till she realised Owen was never going to show up. The PDA bleeped as the final packet landed in it's massive memory, she snatched it from the desk and walked purposefully over to the armoury, she overrode the code and stepped into the Aladdin's cave. She eyed the Derudian Blaster, deadly with little mess to clear up as it vaporised flesh instantly, however it was three foot long and looked like it was made from the off cuts of a plumbers yard. Instead she took hold of a standard earth pistol and checked the clip stored next to it, the projectiles were not standard issue - instead of the ten or so rounds it would normally hold there were many more tiny rounds, alien tech swapped for enough uranium to get some Purites home meant they had the technology to downsize ammunition by increasing the potency of gunpowder and hardening the bullet tips.

She felt the weight and balance of two pistols and looked round for something to put them in, grabbing a briefcase with a self forming lining that took the gun and the four clips she thought she would need. She clipped the lid shut and walked out the Hub and hailed a taxi at the back of the Senedd.

"Ponty Please, fast as."

The cab driver pulled out muttering about "Sodding civil servants"

"Transport are you love?" asked the driver more civilly.

"Yes, taxi licensing department and I'm late for a meeting." she said snappily.

The driver looked ahead and reduced his speed to the local limit.

"Think I know a short cut will save some time." He said nervously. Jenny clicked her tongue irritably and made out she was checking a super important email, the infra red view was showing the body by the wall still wasn't moving and the heat signature was cooling.


	25. Chapter 25

I'm very sorry folks this chapter has a few words my mother wouldn't like in it. If I offend I apologise, but hey it is an adult show and we would all get a little upset if this happened to us….

It also might finish in a funny place as I realised I was passing the 8000 word mark for one chapter and while I know you are all avid readers I thought I should spare you that pain. Which of course means the next installment is close. Oh and yes I win the dumb dumb of the day for uploading the full chapter and then having to delete it. ;-)

***

The team got out of the SUV in a deserted car park next to a deserted soulless tin building, the weeds vying with the scrubby shrubs planted round the parking spaces. They took up what Gwen liked to call the "Torchwood Formation" some how reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs. Jack with his dark glasses, Tosh and Gwen slightly behind with Owen and Ianto at the rear mainly looking behind them. Jack preferred to call it the "Flocking Geese" move.

Tosh tapped away on her hand held and supplied the code for the main door, they went into a shabby carpet tiled reception area, empty and dusty.

"Someone forgot to water the plants." Said Ianto crushing the leaves of a once vibrant yucca into more dust.

"Wenters Windows, declared bankruptcy about eight months ago, all stock and machinery auctioned three months ago, building returned to the trading estate owners at the same time, no interest in the building since. The keys are held by a Fire Dragon Securities, check the building once a week on Thursday afternoons, drive past on a Saturday and sometimes Monday even though the contract requests daily visits." She said ignoring everyone else till the information was out there. Ianto dusted his hands and wrinkled his nose, he didn't like dust and he knew Jack would be thinking of ways to clean the reception desk with his arse, what was it about offices?

"Anything on the Rift signatures?" asked Jack snarkily

"Oh, they seem to be emanating from an office on the mezzanine over looking the workshop, far end."

"Always the far end of anywhere." Said Owen

Gwen cupped her hands round her eyes and peered through a dusty glass panel into the workshop, it was empty, she looked up and could see the mezzanine and the gantry running round it and located the stairs and was about to tell the team when she noticed Ianto was already holding the door open. Jack held his finger against his lips and motioned for the others to follow, Tosh couldn't make out any life signs but just to be sure.

He peered in the first two doors, a thin slit of re-enforced glass allowing the general staff to check if their boss was in before they entered, but they had left a long time before. They got to the last door, the gantry ended in the tin wall as Jack looked through the glass again, he could see four metallic objects, not too different to the type that would form the casing for big naval shells. He looked closer but couldn't see any signs of life, sometimes the Rift did weird shit like that without sentient intervention. Gently he pushed the door open, it squeaked slightly and Tosh followed him taking readings all the time. Gwen, Ianto and Owen, the latter starting to mank at being pulled away from a perfectly good autopsy, followed like small puppies. Tosh moved closer into the object and Jack hunkered down next to her, careful not to touch the metal till Tosh had identified it, Owen came to watch over her shoulder.

The door slammed shut behind them, the room went dark and Ianto was the first to turn and see three dark figures against the wall, as if they had come from the shadows. Two of the figures moved before he could shout a warning rushing across the room grabbing both Tosh and Gwen by the hair and pulling them backwards, the third figure coshed Owen across the head and he went down with a crash. With Gwen and Tosh both on the floor, heads together and a gun in the assailants hand the second figure seized Jack round the neck and forced him down onto his knees. Ianto whipped out his own weapon and started shouting a warning as the free figure came behind him and smacked a butt of an unknown weapon across the very back of his head, he saw stars but instead of falling to the floor he felt his head snap back as the aggressor grabbed his hair.

"Is it her?" asked a voice from behind Ianto. The dark outline snarled at Tosh slapping her face and throwing her onto her front, snapping a pair of what looked like handcuffs but they moulded themselves round her arms and when her ankles were kicked behind her back the implement grabbed them like a vine tendril. Having subdued Tosh he turned his attention to Gwen pulling her up by her long dark hair, she screamed as it sniffed her then licked her face with one long movement from jaw to hair line. She screamed more protest and Jack joined in as the creature slapped Gwen and used the same restraints on her, linking them with Tosh who moaned at the new movement in her ankle, a little blood trickling down her chin where she had bitten the inside of her mouth. Owen wasn't moving just inches away from them.

"Who the fuck are you and what the fuck do you want?" Shouted Jack twisting round to try and see what was happening.

The lights suddenly came back on and they were staring at three very ordinary looking men, average height, average build and very average looks.

"Where is she?" asked the man holding Ianto, pointing a gun at Jack. The voice had an almost reptilian tone to it, the sort of comedy hiss you did when you were pretending to be a snake.

"Who do you want?" Snarled Jack

"Her, the other one, she was seen leaving your lair."

"There is no one else, this is it, you got the whole team, now let us go." He said trying to twist away but it was futile. The man behind him had snapped on a pair of standard issue plastic cuffs so tight he was already loosing the feeling in his right hand.

"We need her, we want her, she can help us." He hissed again. "Stop protecting her and we will let you all go."

Suddenly the penny dropped for Jack, Jenny had told him she thought she was being followed.

"She's gone, you chased her away." Snarled Jack

"I don't believe you, we saw her yesterday." Said the gook behind Ianto pulling his head back and putting the gun under his chin "Tell the truth and no one gets hurt."

"She's in the vaults." Shouted Gwen frightened that their assailants were starting to turn nasty. "Tell us why you want her and we might be able to cut a deal."

The gun was taken away from Iantos chin but was left cocked,

"I'm happy with this one" said the one behind Gwen, his voice was rather childish and didn't belong to the body, jerkily he raised his hand to stroke it down Gwens cheek. Gwen pulled away and started screaming creating a diversion, Ianto used it and pushed himself up driving the top of his head upwards to smash the jaw of his aggressor while Jack body barged the man behind him. It nearly worked, if Jack had only been able to grab his Webley a second earlier he would have been able to loose off a shot behind him before using a trick he had learnt in the travelling fair to kill the man behind Ianto with the gun still behind his back, but he hadn't realised the cuffs went through a belt loop and his reach was restricted. Enraged the man behind Ianto smashed a fist into his face then cracked the gun butt against his left temple flooring him and sending him spinning into the wall. For good measure he kicked and kicked at his torso but stopped when the gun shot rang out.

Fearing the worst for his colleague the man holding the girls had shakily raised his gun towards Jack and finally pulled the trigger. Tosh saw the bullet hit the side of his temple and knew that it had been a lucky killer shot, how long it would be fatal for remained to be seen but she still gagged as his body fell to the floor face down.

"What did you do that for?" Screamed the enraged Gwen.

He man behind her bent towards her in a jerky almost robotic way but was stopped by a click from Jacks antagonist.

"Careful!" he gurgled, he touched Jack and then Owen, blowing out a heavy breath in disgust. "We need a back-up plan and if we kill anymore one of us might have to stay."

"Where are you going?" asked Gwen conversationally, trying to buy time for Jack to come back and save the day, somehow.

"Home." Said and man giving Ianto a last kick. "As a last resort we can use this one, strong body but it'll hurt like a bitch getting it working again"

"We can help you get back home, do you have a ship, do you need it fixing Ianto over there is brilliant at repairing things, or did you ride the Rift? Tosh can help you get back to the right place." She said squeezing Tosh's fingers.

"Have I have a programme that predicts Rift activity." She said from her position face down and spitting blood. She wasn't lying she told herself, you just couldn't tell where it would leave you.

"We don't need your help, we have our own transport, we just need you, so clever yet so frail. We wanted her she is not as frail as you, but beggars can't be choosers." He laughed and pointed, doubling over comically, at the man behind Tosh and Gwen. "Even if some of us do make the wrong choice in transport unit."

The cogs were ticking round in Gwens brain, you could almost hearing her thinking, it was invasion of the body snatchers all over again. Why oh why couldn't they just take over a donkey or a Dalmatian or something? The jerky movements were like he was drunk, or had a stroke, dear god she thought they were taking over their brains.

"Who were you before?" she sadly realised that these had once been people.

"We like clever people, we like to know what they knew, we'll let you have their knowledge too, not that you'll remember it of course."

He advanced towards her, Gwen was running out of options, she tried to scrabble away but the things that bound her to Tosh tightened painfully, she groaned as she looked around Ianto was still unmoving and Owen seemed unconscious, if he could be. She braced herself as his hand came towards her closing her eyes and hoping it would be swift. Instead she heard the most wonderful sound in the world, Jack dragging air in for his first breath.

The taxi seemed infuriatingly slow as it finally made it's way to the business park, she tried to get him to stop on the road outside the business centre that housed the Department for Economy and Transport. However he insisted that he would make sure she was safe and take her right to the door. He was obviously scared she was going to take his licence away, she waved at him from the door hoping he would move so she could run round the corner to the abandoned unit that the Torchwood team were in but he just waved back. So she straightened her jacket and walked in towards the security desk.

"Can I help you?" asked the guard in the ill fitting suit.

"You can, but not in the way you normally do, act normal I need your help, I'm with Torchwood." She gambled on the government knowing who they were.

"The tourist people?" he asked and without pausing for breath carried on "I often take in parcels for them when I'm down in the Bay, what can I do to help, you do a wonderful job you know stops bloody sightseers bothering us."

She was slightly poleaxed by the sidestep from what she was expecting.

"Look I think that guy is a spy for the Scottish tourist board, I'm off to a meeting with a manufacturer of meat products who want to make Welsh haggis and I didn't want him to know." It sounded preposterous but it was the only thing she could make up on the spot.

"Tricky those Scots, I don't blame you putting him off the scent, they'll be wanting Welsh Cakes next." He smiled and looked over her shoulder in what he thought was an inconspicuous manner but was so obvious even a blind man would have known. "He's gone, coast is clear" he whispered dramatically. She nodded her thanks and walked away quickly looking both ways as she exited the door and then doing a quick left turn. Had she looked back she would have seen the guard pointing right for the meat packing plant.

She moved quickly through the low shrubbery that surrounded the car park and covered the 500 yards to the back fence of the unit she wanted in record time, record time for kitten heels anyway. The fence was high chain linked metal so she scanned the outline plans on the PDA for an opening, another 50 metres and there was a gate she walked quickly to it and used a hair grip to open the padlock. In the distance she could see the SUV parked by a corner of the building made of glass, using the same code as Tosh supplied by the brilliant emergency programme she entered the grotty reception area. Training of many years ago took over and she automatically looked up and in every corner before ducking behind the old reception desk and opened the briefcase. She checked both guns and slid the barrels open before cursing herself for not testing the weapons in the Hub, she had no idea what the recoil on these things was and to do it now would just warn the assailants she was there. Tough, you work with what you have she thought stuffing one gun, safety catch on, in the waist band of her skirt and the two spare magazines in each jacket pocket. With a last look at the map, the infrared and muttering a small prayer she moved swiftly and silently up the stairs.


	26. Chapter 26

Jack never truly knew how he would react when he sparked back to life, sometimes it was a long lazy float back to the world and felt like coming out of a daydream and sometimes he was blasted from a furnace with little of no control over what happened to him. This was one of the latter times which probably save Gwens life, the guy had his hands round her cheeks and she started to scream as his mouth opened wide to show what looked like the mouthpiece of a leach extending towards her face. Jack shouted and the rows and rows of teeth snapped back in his throat as he turned to face him, with difficulty Jack was getting back on his feet. The attackers stopped immediately and looked at each other, the one who sounded like a child in an adults body was clapping his hands like a loon.

"We don't need the woman, we can go home now, can we, I want to go home, can I be this one?" he said jumping up and down next to Tosh. The one acting as a ring leader circled warily round always looking Jack up and down.

"Well haven't we hit the jackpot here, two bodies that should get us home and three fresh young bodies for our son."

"What do you want?" snarled Jack trying to stare out the man speaking behind the women

"You." He said simply walking round him

"Why?" he said stalling for time "Who are you, perhaps we can come to some arrangement, help you get home?"

The gurgling laugh came again as the child like one lay down next to Tosh cuddling her like some life size doll.

"All will be clear soon, you will know everything that we know and we will know all you know." He moved again the rows of needle like teeth advancing out of his mouth, the other two seemed to take this as their cue to do the same thing.

Jenny heard the scream and the general shouting and gave up on the creeping along the metal balcony. She knew she was headed right to the end by the infrared view she had left downstairs so she ran till she was at the hinge side of the door and took a deep breath. Using her shoulder she slammed open the door and shouted.

"Put down any weapons or I swear to God I shoot first and ask questions later."

She quickly assessed the situation, three adult males, one rolling round on the floor scrabbling away from Tosh who was screaming fit to shatter glass, one crouching over Gwen with rows of teeth millimetres away from her face and one close to Jack with the same mouth piece extending close to his head. Her brain processed all the options in the nano second the shock entrance had gained her, this was a bad situation. If her reading of the room was correct these things weren't human anymore, the shell of the body contained a parasitic alien that entered the host and entered their brain sucking out all their knowledge, providing food and sustenance till the alien had taken everything it wanted leaving nothing but the lowest functions, the host would begin to show symptoms of dementia and the alien would seek a new refuge leaving nothing but a slobbering drooling mess. Gwarks, nasty little brutes, she thought they had been driven off the planet in her time but perhaps they were back and it seemed like they needed new bodies.

She computed the options, if she was lucky she would be able to kill two of the hosts but the regurgitated alien bodies would still be dangerous and past experience told her there was no cure once they got under your skin and boy could they move when they were threatened. With four of the team on the floor they were all sitting targets and she couldn't see how she could manage all of them.

"Baggsey mine" shouted the one next to Tosh and launched forward with surprising ease and her decision was made. With her left hand she reached round her waist band and pulled out the spare weapon and then threw it across the floor shouting Owens name.

"Above Gwen." She shouted as the gun skittered inches away from his hand and the apparently dead body suddenly revived cocking the gun and twisting his body to face Gwen, he loosed off a shot and winged the shoulder of the advancing body, adjusted his aim and blasted off three more rounds to the chest. Jenny turned slightly and saw the man that had been a simpering wreck less than three seconds before flying through midair straight at her the mouth piece extending. She had no time to aim but the explosive projectile smashed into the top of his skull taking bone and grey matter and plastering it liberally across the wall and floor.

"Destroy the parasite, do not let it touch you." She screamed emptying another four or five rounds into the body and then letting rip on the white maggoty creature until you could see day light through the floor where the bullets had gone though. It had ended up inches from Iantos head and the slime that had enveloped it was running onto the floor below. Owen followed her lead, Gwen was screaming hysterically trying to get away from the noise and acidic residue, the movement tightening the restraints even further against Toshs arms and legs. He stood legs slightly apart for balance, arms locked straight, both hands steadying the gun and his back to Jack. Sure the thing was no longer alive he went to go to Gwen, who had somehow managed to get both of them into a kneeling position away from the slime. There was a strangled noise behind him and he spun on the spot, his balance slightly affected by the length of time he had been immobile on the floor, and saw the rows of teeth sinking into Jack who seemed to be bending backwards under the weight.

"Oh no you don't" he shouted and went for the head shot.

The back of it's head exploded and it fell backwards the mouth piece still extended but it was obviously starting to shrivel. Jack's face was awash with blood where the pointed teeth had ripped at flesh, Jenny looked at him and then at Owen who seemed flush with the success of beating the final foe.

"Jack?" she asked quiet and questioningly, the pistol still held in a combative stance.

Owen flicked the safety on his own weapon and turned to Gwen grinning with his normal lopsided smugness. If she could have kicked her heels in frustration at not being in the fight she would have.

"He'll survive darling." Said Owen over his shoulder.

Jack was taking shallow, tight breaths as he rolled completely onto his back, his eyes misted by blood seeking her face.

"Jack?" she repeated

"Too. late. Do. it." He said heavily spitting blood

"Sorry." She said quietly as she raised the gun again

Gwen screamed and tried to lash out as the only other person could see what was about the happen.

Three shots rang out with the unmistakable sound of air whoshing out of a punctured lung and the horrific splintering of the thicker bone of skull as she shot Jack with clinical precision. Owen turned round too late to see the killer shots but caught the unmistakable view of the alien maggot regurgitating out of Jack's mouth and flopping onto the floor, it seemed to sniff the air and then started to move towards Tosh and Gwen at something approaching light speed. Jenny and Owen both turned their guns on the lump, obliterating it in an instant.

Gwen was screaming and shouting any obscenity she could think of in English and Welsh pulling and yanking at the binds round her wrists and ankles, her gaze fixed on the broken body of Jack. His face was difficult to describe from the injuries and the pool of blood from his chest had mixed with the previous pool to form a vast red lake. Tosh was shouting to Gwen about the pain she was causing her but Gwen was in a different place all together, she looked up at Jenny her face a mask of pure hate.

"What the fuck did you do that for?" the spit flew out of her mouth

For what seemed like an eternity Jenny stared back her eyes unfocused, but then like some cheap B Movie effect the world seemed to wrap round her then ping back into shape. She flicked the gun safety and did a quick scan of the room.

"Owen calm her down. Gwen get over yourself he'll live, Tosh hang on Owen's going to get you out and I'll take Ianto."

Owen advanced on the still shouting Gwen and took her roughly by the shoulders

"Don't make me slap you." He said with less than an inch of air between them. She snorted like a bolting colt and then deflated like a balloon as quickly as she had blow up.

"That's twice in less than five minutes Owen, remember when that last happened?" She said through a mass of tears that welled up from nowhere.

"Yep he'll be like a bear with a sore head and yelling for coffee from the café because Ianto isn't around. Now lie back down while I try and figure out how to get these things off."

"No I want to be with him when he wakes up, he needs someone there." She started to try walking on her knees but Tosh pulled sharply with her hands eliciting a sharp gasp from Gwen.

"I think they've broken my ankle and you're hurting me." She said through clenched teeth.

Gwen mumbled some sort of empty apology and let Owen help them both into a prone position, moving slightly gaining another whimper from Tosh so she could see Jack.

Jenny dropped onto her knees beside Ianto and felt for his carotid pulse, it was difficult to get to as he had been thrown facing the wall and his head was flexed downwards. She put her other hand on his chest and was rewarded with a slight fluttery movement of air and finally managed to get a weak and thready pulse. She shouted loudly in his ear and then pinched his ear lobe while trying to move his head gently back to open his airway.

"GCS is about eight" she shouted over her shoulder and then cursed when she realised the way his hands were tied behind his back was stopping her rolling him onto his back.

"Med kit" said Owen throwing his bag across the room as he started the gory task of trying to find some sort of key. He threw a glance at Jack who was sheet white and obviously not breathing, twice in that sort of time wasn't good for him and it could take him some time to come back round, God but he hoped it was soon because he didn't want to be the one to explain this one to Ianto.

"Is he going to be alright?" asked Toshiko in a small voice.

"I hope so." Said Jenny ripping open the back pack. "Knife?" she barked running her hand over the objects in the med kit trying to familiarise herself in record time.

"Ianto always has a Leatherman on his belt." Said Tosh quietly.

Jenny ran her fingers round his waist and found the pouch, she lifted his jacket, noted the trickle of blood and pulled out the cutting tool on the implement slicing through the stiff plastic causing his body to sag back slightly. She rolled him onto his back with infinite care and hissed when she saw the burgeoning bruise on his temple.

"What happened?" she asked to the room at large.

"You fucking shot him and now he's dead. Again" Shouted Gwen. Tosh pulled on the restraints again,

"She means to Ianto." Gwen fell silent again. "He head butted one of them, this one I think," she inclined her head to the human shell near her. "Then the thing punched him and hit him with his gun and I think kicked him as well." She sounded slightly sick

"Hang in there Tosh with two brilliant medics in the team we can sort this one in minutes can't we girl?" said Owen as he finally flourished an odd looking box from the bloody trousers of the ring leader. He turned it over in his fingers as Tosh nodded weakly, it was the same shiny metal as the restraints and had one thin side shaped like a curve, not a conventional key, but they were conventional cuffs.

"Pupils equal and reactive." Shouted Jenny, years of training and work had sent her into practitioner mode, she was telling her none existent trauma team what she had found, but countless injuries had taught the team the same script. She moved down his body and loosened the tie, flicked open the waistcoat and loosened the belt and waist band to let him breathe a little easier. She pulled up the shirt and winced when she saw the massive boot prints on his front and back, explain that at A&E.

Satisfied that there wasn't any discernibly life threatening internal bleeding she grabbed some oxygen and she tried to rouse him again, without much success. Owen looked over and satisfied himself that someone else could do his job at least as well as him and watched as she took the penknife and stabbed it into the plasterboard so she had a place to hang the IV from. Mental note to self, never get on her wrong side in the kitchen.

"Try holding it against the metal." Said Tosh trying to get his attention, the pain in her ankle was becoming unbearable. Owen grunted and tried to find some sort of central point, finding nothing he ran the box up and down the metal work, he looked at Tosh and realised she was sheet white.

"You all right Tosh?" asked Owen in an outwardly unconcerned manner garnered over many years of practice. Inwardly he was reciting every swear word he knew trying to break his own record for none repetition.

"I will be once you get me out of these." She said quietly "Hurry." She whispered.

Owen doubled his efforts to release the bonds, he moved the box up the metal work that held Tosh and was rewarded with a satisfying click, the tendrils started to uncurl and wound back. She pulled her arms back into a more natural position then let out an involuntary howl of pain when she moved her leg. With slightly shaky hands he tried to release Gwen, murmuring to Tosh to hold on, but couldn't find the right place again. He would have given up if Gwen hadn't been threatening to kill him but when he shouted back for her to stay still before he gave her a sedative he found the right place, it seemed the victim needed to be calm as well as having the key. Even before the cuffs had fully retracted Gwen was scrabbling across the floor on her hands and knees to Jack slipping on the dead leg the strange position had given her. Jenny looked over her shoulder at the noise and saw Gwen rocking slightly over Jacks broken body, gently pushing a strand of hair back into place on his mangled and bloodied forehead. He really was a mess, the circle of teeth had torn the flesh of his face and neck and her final shot had been through the right temple. Gwen looked up and caught her eye,

"What the Fuck were you thinking? Three fucking times, once would have done but no you had to shoot him in three fucking places, it doesn't make him any more dead you know." Her face was a mask of pure hate, her hands ghosted over the marks on his chest, Jenny had seen the same thing happen with grieving widows, it was very full on.

Owen scooted over to the open medical bag and pulled out one of two vials before settling on the right pain killer for Tosh,

"Need a hand?" he asked quietly looking at Ianto

"When you have a second, a friendly voice in his ear." She said pulling out an emergency blanket, "I take it we don't need to call 999?" Owen shook his head took another look at Ianto,

"Nah, we can cope with most things."

Jenny went back to Ianto, she needed to be sure she hadn't missed anything, she started picking over every millimetre of his body realising how much she had taken to using technology over the last 13 years. She looked over her shoulder, edgy about the fact she knew Gwen still had her personal sidearm, but she shouldn't have worried she was too wrapped up in Jack to worry about the world around her. Jenny reached over and pulled a few more items out of the bag, shuttling them across to Gwen,

"This might help." She said kindly, trying to breakdown the barbed wire that was being laid in coils around her.

Gwen looked at the objects on the floor as if they were radioactive before realising that gauze and saline pods weren't harmful, with shaking hands she snapped the top of the plastic vial and wet a square of gauze to gently wipe away the blood from his face.

"I don't think it's broken" Owen said to Tosh, the dose of morphine was taking effect and she no longer cared if it was even attached. The scientist in her wanted to know what was going on and she was already trying to get samples out of what was left of the maggots, Owen tried to stop her but realised this was the only way she could cope with what she had seen, humans turning into face eating monsters. He strapped up her ankle as best he could while she twisted around and gave up trying to help her while there were better things he could be doing. Moving back to the drama in the corner he quickly cast a glance over at Jack, wishing he hadn't as he saw the bullet casing eject from Jacks waxy skin. He knelt next to Ianto and felt the growing lump on Iantos forehead, it was at least ten minutes since he had been struck and in medical terms it wasn't looking exactly brilliant.

"If you don't wake up soon I swear I will post that CCTV footage on Youtube." He said loudly into Iantos ear. Nothing. He used his favourite trick of sternum pressure with no response. Now Owen was worried.

Jenny reached up and squeezed the fluid bag hard to try and help his blood pressure, sometimes you just had to wait it out.

"Trust Jack to wipe out just when we need him." Muttered Owen under his breath, Gwen gave him a look that would kill a second time but she kept on obsessively wiping every last speck of blood away from his face. Owen checked his watch and was about to suggest another option when he heard Ianto mumble slightly. He jumped on the movement and used all his medical wiles to drag him back to the real world.

Ianto felt like his head had been used for a rather violent game of all in rugby, and the mud from the pitch had clogged in his ears giving everything a tinny, swoshy sound. He could feel the light pricking his eyes as his body pulled itself back into reality, every step closer brought some new pain in a different part of his body. The only functioning part of his brain decided that it was all a bit too much and he could feel himself giving into the darkness again.

"Oh no you bloody don't, Jones open your eyes now or so help me god I will feed the Weevils on Vindaloo for a week."

Owens voice ground through the layers, Ianto felt like he was being dragged by a rope round his middle, oh god the pain in his abdomen was like knives. Breathe, his subconscious told him to concentrate on getting cool air across the flaming barrier around his chest. Another layer peeled off and he tried to gulp in air only to find something across his face, ever since the Brecons his nightmares included heavy Hessian across his mouth. Instinctively he brought his hands up to try and pull away whatever was on his face they were tangled in something held down by some giant squid.

"Ianto it's just some oxygen to help you breathe easier" He could feel hands holding his arms, the tell tale crinkle of the space blanket, in his head he was really struggling but all he could feel was a woman's feather light touch.

"Where does it hurt Ianto?" That was Owen, an anchor in the soup of his brain.

"Everywhere" he replied

There was a slight pause and he felt hands roaming over his body.

"Try again Ianto, a known language would help." Jesus but Owen could be annoying even when you were trying to stay unconscious.

"Open your eyes Ianto." A direct order, from a woman, not Gwen or Tosh, a heartbeat while his brain caught up, the new one. He tried to comply, a millimetre and the light stung his retinas like a million nettles, he clamped his eyelids shut to find them being forced open a bright light obscuring any view of the world.

"Ianto, pain, where?" Owens fall back when stressed was to become snappy, he must be stressed now.

"Everywhere." This time he knew Owen had heard him, he had lifted away the oxygen mask and was so close to his lips he could feel the cool air that hung around him these days. He heard a murmured exchange between Owen on one side and the Jenny woman on the other, he tried to curl up to release the tension across his stomach but he felt gentle hands keeping him flat then less gentle hands lifting his knees and shoving something underneath to ease the tension that way. He marvelled that the one thing his brain could pick out was the fact that it felt like leather, Owen had given up his precious jacket to help him.

A few more words were exchanged over him,

"What happened?" he asked breathily. He could remember getting out of the SUV and the poor Yucca, after that nada.

"The usual, evil murderous alien and you got in the way." Said Owen "Pain?"

Ianto groaned and tried roll on to his side again,

"Back." He thought again "Front." As he rotated his mashed temple came in contact with the floor and it felt like someone had laid into his skull with a poker again. The pain was so intense his stomach clenched and he saw stars, he was seeing stars he thought with the very small part of rationality left. The muscle contraction in his midriff stopped his breath, it was like every student hangover ever, he tried to push himself into a sitting position but he was too weak to hold himself up. Scrabbling round for purchase he grabbed onto the arm that was trying to help him, he clung to it like a drowning man would a log in a river.

"I'm going to be sick." He muttered between clenched teeth

The arm was trying to lie him down again but he fought against it, as things went at the moment the semi-prone position was marginally more comfortable than lying flat on unforgiving floor.

"Ok, it's ok Ianto try and calm down you aren't helping yourself, give me back my arm and I can help you." Jenny had a soothing tone, much better than Owen a bit like Jack really. Jack, Ianto couldn't remember hearing his masterful tone barking orders and he started fretting again. Outside his own personal bubble he could hear Jenny and Owen discussing him like a lab rat but he was beyond caring.

"Ianto we're going to sit you up, I'm going to sit behind you so you can rest easy, Ianto try and breathe normally before you pass out again." He looked like a bunny in the headlights as Owen and Jenny moved round and helped him rest back against her warm, soft flesh, Owen held a syringe and flashed a quick grin at him before adding it to the port in his hand. It felt cold going in and he could imagine it moving round his body, he felt more relaxed his head dropped back a little onto her collar bone.

"Hey don't get too comfortable I'm not a chair." She said jokingly "I don't do this for all my patients you know."

Owen was back again with his bloody light.

"Where's Jack?"

"Busy mate, otherwise engaged." Replied Owen quick as a flash. "How you doing Tosh?"

"I've no idea what these things were, they don't fit with anything on our database."

"Look around 1954, near earth parasites, sometimes when we thought we had wiped them out we wouldn't bother recording anything, might be under G. Unless we had some technology of note from them it didn't seem worth the time to fill in the paperwork."

Tosh nodded, with the extra information she would be able to narrow down the search, she lent back against the wall gritting her teeth and looked at Jack, shuddering. Gwen had cleaned away most of the blood but some of the ripped flesh still hadn't healed, including a particularly nasty looking tear around his left eye. Gwen had pulled him onto her knee and was now bent over him crying, Tosh checked the chronometer on her handheld, Jack had been down for nearly eight minutes now, that was a long time for him.

"Gwen we need to tidy up in here, get the bodies down to the SUV." Owen was quiet, normally by now she had dealt with the human casualties, given them a name worked out how long they had been missing and thought of a plausible cover story. She was much better at back stories than any of the others, that was the reason Jack employed her. Gwen just shook her head. Owen knew he wasn't going to move her so he went behind her and whispered in her ear.

"Just try and keep him quiet when it happens, Ianto doesn't need the stress."

Gwen nodded and moved a hand close to his mouth, she didn't like doing it but she thought Jack would understand.


	27. Chapter 27

Owen looked at the bodies, took a few photos of the way they had fallen and some of the injuries that would change as the bodies cooled and rigor mortis set in. The scientist in him loved this sort of investigation, no police, no SOCOs to get in his way so he could get straight down to the slicing and dicing. There was no way that he could ID these guys from a photograph, their faces were none existent, the exiting aliens had mashed their features beyond recognition. Katie flashed before his eyes, at least she was spared that indignity, he wondered if anyone was missing these men the least he could do was find their families for a last good bye.

Ianto was still confused and felt like he could sleep for a year, but annoyingly Jenny wanted to keep him awake, at first he was happy just to stay as still as possible but as the drugs started to work he tried to look round, instantly regretting it. It felt a bit like shaking one of those paperweights with the blue oil in them, all wavy, and it took a while to settle down.

"Where's Jack?" He asked again, all he wanted was to cuddle into him and forget the pain in his head

"Oh he's a little busy at the moment, I'm sure he'll be back soon." She was glad she had turned Ianto a little so he couldn't see the play within a play acted out with Gwen and Jack, there was a strange dynamic there, some sort of link that she couldn't work out. Ianto's brain was working a bit slower but as the cogs slowly dropped into place and he tried to move again.

"He's dead again isn't he, I need to be there." He tried to pull away but he was as weak as a kitten and easily held down, somehow though he got the mask off and shouted Jacks name until he coughed and started to wretch.

"He'll bounce back, that's why he's Jack" said Jenny holding him tightly till the spasm subsided.

"He gets scared too." Said Ianto quietly. Jenny tried to think of something light and reassuring to say but there wasn't anything really so she just made sympathetic noises and rubbed his free hand. There was something to be said for the normal practice of medicine, when it got too emotional you walked out the room and let the nursing staff look after the broken souls.

Ianto's mind wandered again. Despite all of Jacks bravado he didn't go out of his way to die, it wasn't an easy solution to get yourself shot – unless it saved someone else. The first time Ianto saw Jack die was when Owen shot him and at that time he thought he deserved it. He hadn't had time to regret the fact that their part-time arrangement hadn't come to more and he never considered the pain it caused Jack, he thought it had been quick and probably necessary. Then Jack had gasped and grabbed Gwen's leg and the guilt started, he had felt compelled to just about carry Jack from the rapidly disintegrating Hub, he had a million and one questions but he didn't get to ask them because Jack had wanted Gwen, and when she had rung Owen an hour later Ianto still didn't get to ask the questions because she brought him back dead. Then he wasn't again and he only had one question answered, no words just a heart stopping snog, was that the right word? It seemed so banal, then a whispered promise of some time to talk later. And of course later didn't come, Tosh had taken him to buy coffee due to the fact that the kitchen had been destroyed and when they returned Gwen was bleating about Jack going missing. And Ianto lost everything for the third time in a week.

For what he thought were the next three months he had thrown himself into saving the world, though it all seemed a little hazy round the edges. The whole team remembered being tasked to go to the Himalayas and the cold, physical exercise and lack of sleep made it difficult to remember what happened, or that was the conclusion the team had come to when they found themselves inexplicably back in the Hub. So without anything else to do they had chased Weevils, saved Cardiff from various alien hoards and generally upgraded the Hub, correction Ianto had upgraded the Hub. He had worked like the very devil to cut out the pain of loneliness again. He thought he had it sussed until he had bottled it when faced with the prospect of killing a teenage girl because his hands were shaking too much to ensure he hit the blowfish.

Then Jack had swanked in "hey kids did ya miss me?". He wanted to pin him to the floor and alternatively beat him to a pulp and then smoother him with passion but of course nothing was that simple with Jack.

As soon as Jack was back he ran off again, Ianto was seeing a pattern, so many questions unanswered and now they had some mad, cocky bastard from Jacks past or was it future, to deal with. The only comforting thought was that John Hart, real name also unknown, didn't seem to know about this inability to die so Jack wasn't just keeping it quiet from them. They didn't get another chance to talk until Gwen saved the world and Jack banished John through the Rift. The team quickly skedaddled from the car park in case they saw themselves and sat in a lay by round the other side of the bay till they worked out where they had been and where they could hide. After ruling out every ones house – neighbours might ask their other selves too many questions, the Hub and anywhere close to the centre of Cardiff they had finally told Jack that if they were going to a hotel it would have to be a good one and he had to explain why five people were turning up in the middle of the night, one soaked in blood, and why no one was to disturb them. There were only four rooms left and Tosh and Gwen offered to share but Ianto muttered something about needing to talk and Tosh took the hint even if Gwen had taken a while to click.

Tosh and Gwen took Owen and made sure that he bothered looking after himself and left Jack and Ianto standing in a darkened corridor staring at each other. Ianto was dog-tired and took four attempts to get the electronic key to register and open the door. Finally the light turned green and they went inside Jack walking behind him as they went through the small corridor formed by the bathroom. Ianto threw the key on the desk and let his shoulders drop. He turned to face Jack and without words they just grabbed each other in a bear hug that spoke volumes about their loneliness and need. They could have probably stayed all night like that if Ianto hadn't realised that his shoulder was getting damp, he pulled back to see Jack silently weeping and realised that sleep was still a long time away. So they had talked, he had asked the obvious question, why did he leave, did he find his Doctor and was pleased with the reply, Jack had found out what Ianto and the team remembered and the ever perceptive Ianto had probed till he found out a little about the year that never happened for them. Jack didn't want to say too much in case it triggered memories that had been reset when the year had been reversed but when he went to get up to replace the now sodden pocket handkerchief with some paper tissues his recently healed back was so stiff he cried out in pain. That was a new one for Ianto so after lifting him back onto the bed and being convinced that Owens services were not required Jack told Ianto about the fall from the building and the pain he went through every time he was dragged back.

Everything Jack had bottled up inside came flooding out, the physical pain, the mental torture of seeing others die and his new found acceptance of his permanent state. No specifics, but Ianto thought it was more important to get any information rather than allow him to clam up again. And clam up was all he had done since. Finally the sun rose again and they both realised the time, stiffly Jack had got up from the bed and Ianto had realised the state he was in so he shrugged out of his suit jacket and took off his tie before feeling a little awkward. He had offered Jack the bathroom first but rather coyly Jack had offered to share instead, the hot water had washed away the grime and released tense muscles, but nothing more happened that night. Jack wanted to do things properly, start all over again, rewind and Ianto wasn't complaining, so they had shut the curtains, thrown their clothes in the washing sack, put up the 'Do Not Disturb' sign and pulled the heavy duvet over them, the proximity of each other was all they needed to keep the demons at bay, if only for one night.

Despite the fact Gwen was waiting for this moment Jack still caught her unaware. She felt something change, a rush of energy perhaps, and she was about to call Owen over when he yelled. He yelled fit to stop the traffic, he flailed around as if a giant octopus was wrapped round him and Gwen was powerless to help. She tried put a hand over his mouth in an attempt to muffle the sound but he just threw the hand away and pulled more air into gasping lungs. He wasn't in control of his body and his arms thrashed like windmills, he felt his chest where the bullet wounds were only just healing, it was like red-hot pokers searing through his lungs. His head swivelled from side to side as he tried to work out what had just happened, head shots could really scramble his brain and being shot usually meant he had to be back on the ball quickly. Jesus this was like wading through porridge, something was obscuring his vision and he could hear someone calling his name. One by one each of his senses came back online, like a reboot of vital systems, touch, vision, sound, taste, a horrible metallic taste in his mouth and finally smell, Gwens perfume mixed with blood and vomit, he hoped he hadn't thrown up, the only time he lost control anymore was just after this happened.

"Jack" shouted Gwen, only just dodging an arm "Jack, calm down, it's alright, Jack." she sounded exasperated. Jenny marvelled at the fact that the rest of the team were acting like seeing a man shot in the head and then returning to life was an everyday occurrence, Tosh hadn't even stopped what she was doing. Ianto tried to crane his neck round ignoring the pain and dizziness, this one sounded bad for Jack, he normally just slid back into being after a few minutes and got up and carried on as if nothing had happened. Jenny tried to keep him as calm as possible but it was like holding only a small bird and nothing was going to help him until he knew what had happened.

Jack rolled over onto all fours and shook his head like a shaggy dog

"Can't see, what happened?" he said breathily, he sounded like an asthmatic donkey which had peaked Owens interest. Owen took any chance he could to study Jack, he had even asked to do some clinical trials on recovery times and couldn't understand why Jack hadn't seemed interested in being shot and observed. Owen grabbed Jacks head under the ears and tilted his head back,

"Yep there's your problem." He turned a motioned for the med kit which came sliding across the floor. He pushed Jack back till he was sat up with none of the care he had used on Tosh or Ianto. "Slash across your eye hasn't healed yet." Jack stopped struggling as he felt Gwen rub his arm, Owen worked efficiently to wash out the tear that had ripped half his eyelid back and exposed his cornea to the air all the time he had been lying there making it slightly cloudy. Anyone else it could have meant reduced vision for the rest of their life, scratch that anyone else would have been dead. He got Jack to lie back down on Gwens knee and placed the two sides of the wound back together, no point in stitches so he placed a couple of steri-strips on before covering it with a pad to keep the eye shut. Jack pawed at the cotton wool like a dog unable to comprehend why he could only see from one eye.

"Just for a few minutes Jack, give it time to heal." Said Owen checking the rest of him over, "How do you feel?"

"Like I've just been shot." He said grumpily. "What the hell did you do here?" he said looking pointedly at the hole in floor.

"She shot you, three times." Said Gwen pouting

"Thank you Miss Sensitivity." Said Owen happy that Jack being Jack everything else would be fine.

Jack looked round the room and saw Tosh propped against the wall, tapping away on a laptop, she gave a wane smile and thumbs up, he could see she was holding her leg at a funny angle and he mentally cursed himself for letting the team down. Gwen was obviously fine, she was talking twenty to the dozen in his ear and he was only half processing what she was telling him, Owen, well apart from the obvious, seemed fine even though Jack had a hazy memory of him lying very still on the floor. His good eye scanned round and finally he found what he was looking for, Ianto, pale features a blossoming bruise at his temple and one eye stating to puff up slightly, his head craned over his shoulder leaning against Jenny. His brain parked the fact that she shouldn't be here and his legs independently started to move across the floor, it was a bit like watching Bambi.

"Take it easy Jack, lack of blood remember." Said Owen moving out of the way.

Jack looked at the lake of blood on the floor around him and realised most of it was his own, his once blue shirt was a bright sticky red, one of the last shots must have hit a major blood vessel. It took time for his body to replace that much blood and a lot of fluid intake, boy was he going to have a headache tonight, until then he had to work round the bits that didn't work, like getting the blood back into his legs. He took the easier option and crawled like a baby across the floor to take Iantos face gently in his hands.

Ianto surged forward to hug Jack, he wanted to hold on and never let go. Jack held him tightly, listening to his partners hitched breathing, muttering apologies under his breath and rubbing small circles across his back. Jack kissed Iantos forehead on one very small piece of pale unbruised skin and looked at Jenny in askance.

"He'll survive, nasty concussion, some heavy bruising round the kidneys, I want to run some tests but Owen tells me the Hub has all I need."

She motioned for Jack to take her place and support Ianto, he immediately relaxed back into Jacks embrace but was brought up short by the damp and rapidly hardening blood on his shirt. Jack shrugged off his questions and shushed him, pulling him back into his arms and Ianto willingly curled up as he did so. Jenny pulled the blanket around them and checked his vitals once more.

"No going to sleep." She said in a mock stern voice and Ianto gave a barely perceptible nod and she went to offer her help to Owen and Gwen, arching an eyebrow when Owen suggested she help him carry the bodies downstairs.


	28. Chapter 28

"Would you like the good news or the bad news?" Asked Owen with a cocky grin on his face.

"I'll buck the trend and go for the good news first." Said Ianto from his prone position on the examining couch. He had been prodded and scanned for what felt like hours as Owen showed off all his alien toys to his new doctor pal.

"You'll live, nothing broken that won't mend," he paused for dramatic effect, "As long as you rest for a few days. That means nothing strenuous, no Weevils, no cleaning like a maniac and definitely no, you know, Jack." Said Owen looking slightly disturbed.

Ianto made a noise that could only be described as a harrumph.

"Is that the bad news?"

"No the really bad news is if you think it hurts now you have no idea." Said Jenny coming over to help him up. Ianto tried to wave away the help but quickly found out that his body wasn't going to co-operate. When Jenny finally helped him to a sitting position he had a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead.

"Vomit on these Louboutins and you will be spending the next three weeks trawling the world to replace them, these babies don't come cheap or easy." She said putting a steadying hand on his shoulder and smiling at him.

"So last season." Said Ianto smiling weakly, swallowing the feeling of nausea.

Jenny wrapped his ribs tightly to try and reduce the bruising and protect the tender area that had taken so many blows from the booted foot.

"How's the patient?" Asked Jack laying nonchalantly against the door jamb. Owen nearly dropped the tray of used instruments he had been carrying, for a split second he worried that his hearing was starting to go but quickly realised, when he put his mind to it, Jack could sneak up on a cat without waking them.

"Better than you by the looks of it." Said Owen regaining his composure.

Even though Jack had showered and changed he still looked rough, pale and haggard. Ianto reached out a hand and Jack moved over to take it. Even though he tried to block her view she saw it shaking as their hands merged, gently Jack pulled Ianto against him and whispered into his hair,

"I'm sorry." Ianto squeezed his hand, there was no point in telling him it wasn't, they'd had that argument too many times and he was too tired.

"Can I go home now?" asked Ianto quietly, there was a double bed with a thick duvet out there with his name on it and he felt he could sleep for the next 24 hours.

"Ah more bad news, can't let you go home alone and we need to check on you hourly. Never trust a concussion." Ianto looked with puppy dog eyes at Jenny who was looking back with the sort of steely eyed hardness only years of medical training could give you.

"I'll go home with him." Said Jack as if it was an abnormal thing.

"No offence mate but you two alone" Owen raised an eyebrow "besides I know what happens to you when you lose that much blood, one whiskey 'to numb the pain' and you wouldn't feel it if Krakatau went underneath you."

"God I remember that." Said Jenny in a far away voice.

"The earth moved for me that night." Said Jack grinning and beginning to chuckle, which quickly turned into a slight hacking cough.

Ianto rolled his eyes at that little exchange and noted in his memory for more probing later.

"Well Owen can come back to my place then."

"Unfortunately Ianto my job tonight is saving the world because no one else is in a fit state to do so, you can stay here in the medical bay, Jack you go hide in your bunker and I can be available for all stray Weevils, rift activity and extraneous aliens."

"I hope you're not including me in that." Said Jenny arching an eyebrow

"Besides" said Owen ignoring the comment and waving a hand expansively "if you go home you will end up cleaning something and making it worse again."

Ianto gripped Jacks hand again, he knew immediately what was going through Iantos mind, the corridor below this one had seen Lisa's final stand, Ianto had dragged Dr Tanizaki here to hide the body. Even now it gave him nightmares and Jack regularly had to wake Ianto from an unconscious fight with the events of that night, they were so vivid he could feel the warm blood of the failed conversion dripping through his fingers, remember the feel of the polished metal fused with the skin of his once vibrant girlfriend.

"Ok how about a compromise, Owen you carry saving the world from here, Ianto and I go back to his place and we take Jenny to baby sit us both."

"How about a different compromise." Said Jenny realising that Ianto would rather half kill himself rather than stay here. "We all go back to my place where there is no cleaning, no cooking and no worries about Weevils invading."

"Three in a bed, kinky." Scoffed Owen

"No Owen, I'm not in the Travel Lodge, suites have more than one room and room service on tap."

"Would you be happy with that?" Jack asked Ianto quietly as if he was talking to a child with a grazed knee. Ianto nodded gently into Jack's side, Jack looked at Owen who just cocked an eyebrow and shrugged.

"If you get into trouble call Gwen." Said Jack as he finally peeled Ianto off him and letting Jenny finish dressing him.

"She's looking after Tosh."

"Lucky Tosh" said Jack without a hint of sarcasm.

"Luck Rhys, three of them in that flat, I doubt he will come out alive." Said Ianto dead pan "Just think of all the wedding dresses and tiaras she can talk about."

They all pondered that thought with various expressions of horror.

The hotel staff all smiled politely at the rich bitch when she requested room service for herself and her two ever so drunken men friends, did you see how they had to hold each other up as they got in the private elevator? Did you catch the fact she never touched them once? Daddy wouldn't like it if he knew would he? At least one of the junior porters thought about downloading the CCTV footage but he wasn't sure how to without his old IT class notes, the next time he looked the tape was curiously blank. They all wished they knew who she was so they could shop her to 3am. Pity it was so quiet inside they just had to make it up instead.

Ianto was starting to seize up quickly, going out into the cold, sitting in the SUV had taken their toll and he hissed as he was lowered gently onto one of the myriad of sofas. He looked around as Jack fussed about him with cushions, so this was how the other half lived. He batted Jack away as he tried to add yet another cushion, it upset his sense of atheistics to take away all the artfully displayed pillows.

"Let me die in peace Jack." Said Ianto wearily "And in luxury."

"Food will be here in about 35 minutes, just enough time for a bath if you want it." She said smiling at Ianto

"Yes please." Said Ianto levering himself slowly from the cloying stuffiness that Jack had turned the couch into. Jack went forward to help him but Ianto scowled hard enough to make him step back.

"You should have someone with you in case, you know." Said Jack not really wanting to point out that there was still the outside chance that Ianto could fall unconscious and drown himself.

"I'll be fine Jack." He said limping very slowly over the carpet towards the sound of running water.

Jenny held Jack back with a simple touch on the arm,

"He'll call in a minute when he works out he can't get his arms high enough to get his t-shirt off." She said quietly

"I nearly lost him again didn't I?" he replied just as quietly

"No Jack you were both doing your job, serious injury and occasional death is an occupational hazard and both were narrowly avoided today." Jack gripped her shoulder before resting his head on it. The moment was broken when Ianto called plaintively just as predicted, Jack snapped to attention then nearly stumbled as the low blood pressure caught up with him. Jenny held him upright till the moment passed and he waved her away,

"Go on and I'll pretend like you're just good friends." Jack smiled his patented lopsided grin.

Ianto pushed the food round his plate in an attempt to make it look like he had eaten something, the pain killers had taken away any appetite he once had. Jack raised an eyebrow and on Ianto's nod spiked two water chestnuts continuing hovering the plate when Ianto pushed it away, resurrection often made him ravenous.

"Where's the best place you've been?" asked Ianto, a question he had asked Jack before and never got a straight answer from.

"Different places at different times." She replied, my God thought Ianto, they're all the same.

"Ok I'll rephrase the question, where is the best place and era you've been in?"

"Ah, much easier to answer, America after the Civil War had settled, the land grabs, the gold rushes, it was so exhilarating, so unstuffy, so unlike Europe." She smiled wistfully.

"I fancied me a piece of Oklahoma too, but a bullet got in the way." Chipped in Jack, Ianto raised an eyebrow at Jenny and she gave a quick smile at him.

"I thought that you were unstoppable."

"Now I know that but do have any idea what gasping your last and then finding two minutes later that you aren't dead does to the psyche?"

"I didn't till a few days ago."

They all ruminated quietly on that thought, except Jack who wasn't the quietest eater in the world.

Jenny excused herself from the table and then returned with a small wooden box, not dissimilar to the one that contained the remains of her old cat. Ianto prayed it wasn't more ashes but she opened it to show jewellery and carefully took out each piece and laid them in a line. Three wedding rings, one so thin that Jack couldn't bring himself to pick it up in case it broke, a rosary so worn it was hard to tell if it was made of jet or wood worn to a shine, an exquisite cameo, which on closer inspection was Jenny's profile, a whole collection of other jewellery and in her hand another ring.

"My last engagement ring." She said handing over the piece firstly to Ianto. The band itself was tiny, at odds with the rest of her frame, but the stone was a small, lumpy nugget of gold.

"Klondike?" asked Jack as he appraised the gold, the con mans eye for the expensive came in useful at times.

"That was over a hundred years ago." Said Ianto quietly.

"That box contains something meaningful from every life, but I couldn't think of anything to keep from the last one." Ianto carefully picked through each of the small pieces, a veritable history of trinkets and jewellery from the past half millennium.

"You should have made some coal into a ring, you were in Newcastle weren't you?" said Ianto

"Nah no coal left up there now, besides I haven't bought anything in that box, they were all presents, they all have memories of the giver." Ianto half nodded continuing his appraisal of the contents, a bullet casing, a red enamelled cross of Great War Vintage.

"What do you keep Jack?" she asked conversationally. He looked like a startled colt for a second then composed himself

"Memories and photos, but they fade." The other two weren't sure which he meant, Jack realised he was under attack from all sides.

"None of the wedding rings is the right era." Said Ianto suppressing an ill timed yawn

"He was shot in a bar brawl the night before we should have been in church." She said picking at the side of her finger so she didn't have look at him. "Haven't found anyone to replace him yet, it's getting a bit lonely."

"Hence your one way ticket to the Rift?" Asked Jack

Ianto placed his hand over Jack's, he often got a little tetchy when people talked about suicide, originally he thought it was because it was the only option not available to him, then he had read the report about the Millennium incident.

"Yep, but perhaps I now realise God had a different purpose."

"You don't believe in all that mumbo jumbo do you?" Jack asked quietly.

"Three separate periods in post medieval convents, what do you think? Besides there has to be something out there for us mere mortals."

"Owen said there was nothing." Said Ianto quietly

"Owen isn't dead." Replied Jack and Jenny in unison.

"Ok that was slightly freaky." He replied "Telepathy, empathy, alien device not yet know to human?" counting off the possible reasons for this sudden duality.

"There is nothing. End of. Change the subject." Jack clamed up again cooling the atmosphere by around twenty degrees.

No one looked at anyone else

Ianto yawned stretched, instantly regretting it, whimpering slightly when his ribs pulled. Jack looked solicitously at him and caught his shoulders as he started to double over,

"I think it might be past your bedtime soldier."

"It's only eight thirty Jack." He said like a petulant school boy

"You've had a long and exciting day and if you don't go to bed I might take the TV out of your room." Said Jack in his best Dad voice.

"Come on, doctors orders." Said Jenny, "You know you want to."

Ianto nodded and found an arm round both sides, guiding him gently towards the second bedroom, after a slightly false start when Jack went the wrong way. After a quick final check over Jenny pronounced that she was nearly certain he should survive, but she would come and check on him in a few hours time.

"So much for his late night. Are you sure we should let him sleep?" asked Jack, acutely aware that it was all a bit academical as he was already snoring gently while holding onto his arm like a teddy bear.

"Old wives tale really but it never hurts to check it's not got a grain of truth." She smiled and dimmed the lights, "Glass of best poison out here if you can get free, just no molesting him ok."

Jack made sure that Ianto was going to be comfortable if he woke up and then kissed him lightly in the forehead, the way his heart skipped a beat he knew he couldn't bear to loose another person so special. After dwelling on this thought for a moment too long he carefully got up and shuffled lightly out of the room and back to the living room where a glass stood on the glass toped coffee table. He took a sip.

"Water?" he spluttered nearly spitting it back across the carpet

"You never used to drink anything else, they used to do impressions of you when they came back to the Institute, Gotta be ready." She said with a particularly bad American accent.

Jack laughed at the accent and the thought that he had been mocked for so many years behind his back.

"Well things change, I hang loose a little more often" she waved at the drinks cabinet, but Jack sat down with his water.

"Still want to talk?" she asked, he swirled the contents of his glass and nodded

"When are you going to tell him Jack?"

"Tell him what?" he asked levelly

"What you keep in your box."

"Soon, perhaps"

"Does he even know about Marion?"

Jack put the glass down and closed his eyes.

"I haven't talked about her for 60 years, I didn't think anyone knew anymore." he looked her in the eye "Does he really want to know?"

"What you haven't even told him about your wife? Jack." She sounded exasperated, "It's a part of you, he seems to have come to terms with the whole immortality thing, you should give him some credit and tell him before he finds out some other way."

Jack swallowed, that bit he hadn't thought through when he gave him the key to the file room.

"I thought it would be easier for him to work it out himself, give him time"

"Easier for who Jack?" she said swigging her own G&T

Jack got up and walked over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a large measure of a particularly old single malt and warmed it slightly in his hand, she rattled her own glass for a refill.

"My sage advise, take him away, pamper him and tell him straight. He knows you have a past, he doesn't care or he wouldn't be here anymore. Share the past like it is a good story book, which it is by the way - you should write it down, and let him see what you use to remind you of people and places." She sniffed the glass and took a sip as he sat next to her.

"What if I don't want to remember myself?"

"You can't forget what you have done, it forms part of you and every decision you make." Said Jenny, wrinkling her nose in concentration. Jack thought of how to phrase the next question taking a deep swig from the glass.

"Have you ever been so drunk that you lost a chunk of time, a few hours, a day perhaps?"

"I have lived through the sixties Jack."

"Well I have few holes like that, only one lasts for two years." He let that sink in before starting again, "I have tried everything to get it back but the only time I even get close is when someone close dies and I know it was my fault."

She reached over and touched his knee, he took another deep swig.

"It was worst when Marion died giving birth to my child, Estelle died because I didn't protect her, hell even shooting Suzie Costello to save Gwen stirred some devil in me only Ianto and his stopwatch could quell. It surfaced again when you were ill, like rats scraping at my brain, I saw the scratches and I knew I did that, I tortured you and hundreds of others to save my own skin, what did I do that was so evil the Time Agency had to wipe my memories?" he hands shook and he finished the glass off.

"You know I forgave you years ago for that, you didn't have much choice that was Torchwood." To drive home the point she reached round and hugged him till he sagged back with his eyes closed in utter defeat.

"Well as I see it you have two options, you either find a better way to bury it and never think about it again or you find out the truth and face the music."

"Is there a third option?" asked Jack a little scared at both thoughts.

"You don't have to make the choice alone, explain it, talk it through with Ianto, he then helps you make the choice and if he truly loves you he will respect and support you in that decision, that's what true love actually is." She looked over and could see him fighting to hold his eyes open.

"But what if I drive him away too, I haven't felt this much for one person before, when he, when he, " his voice hitched as he tried not to vocalise the demons running round in his head, "When he goes I can feel it will break my last barrier."

"And you think pushing him away sooner and knowing he is still out there broken by you instead of living a full and contented life together and dying of old age with his Toy boy lover is going to be better?"

Jack inhaled loudly suppressing a yawn "When you put it that way, being a 200 year old Toy boy will be interesting."

"Make your choice Jack, if you need professional help I know a few good empaths and mind seekers that can help."

Jack put his hand over hers and rubbed a calloused thumb over it.

"You're good at this, I could use that sort of skill."

"Oh no Jack, I'm not coming back, besides I promised myself a few years to see the world before it changes beyond recognition."

"Twenty First Century is when it all happens." Joked Jack sleepily

"I could tell you the formula for world peace right now and you wouldn't remember it in the morning would you?" She said plucking the dangerously loose glass out of his hand as his head lolled forward.

"Jesus, Owen was right." She said to herself, Jack was out like a light and already snoring gently. She stood and pulled his head down to the sofa, lifted his legs into a cramped but horizontal position. She covered him with a spare duvet and he immediately snuggled further into it, muttering something which sounded as if it was meant for Ianto. She took a step back thinking about Jacks comments on coming back to Torchwood, it was such a bad idea, but being bad could be so much fun.


	29. Chapter 29

There were no surprises when Jenny woke early the next morning, Jack was gone and a note was left on the arm of the sofa he had fallen asleep on. Jenny read the beautiful copper script and snorted. She folded the paper back into the envelope and called for room service before going to check on Ianto. He was still spark out, probably not helped by the twice she had roused him to see if he still knew is own name, he had and the second time he had also remembered a few choice words in Welsh that Jenny hadn't heard in a few centuries.

Ianto groaned as he was pulled back to the real world, truth be told he had heard movement in the rest of the suite and he had tried to will himself back to sleep by refusing to open his eyes or move a single fibre. He had heard the door open quietly and he knew someone was watching him and as the person was being quiet it was unlikely to be Jack, his suspicions were confirmed as he heard a glass being placed on the bedside table.

"I know you're awake Ianto." Whispered a female voice and Ianto knew there was no point in pretending anymore. He opened his eyes and groaned moving his head to the side away from the light streaming through the door, he thrashed the other way as she then pulled the curtains open and allowed the only sunny day Cardiff had seen in a month to stream in. He tried to push himself into a sitting position but the bruised muscles in his back screamed in agony. He tried to suppress the sound that came involuntarily out of his mouth but it ended up sounding even worse.

Jenny raised an eyebrow and came over to the bedside. She opened her hand to reveal three tablets.

"You upto eating?"

"I wouldn't exactly call those food." Said Ianto trying more slowly to sit up. She put the tablets down and helped him get more comfortable.

"No but you really don't want an ulcer to add to your problems, if you are still feeling nauseous I'll get Owen to bring something else over."

"I'm ravenous." He said smiling.

"Good, I ordered nearly everything on the menu because I didn't know what you would want. It shouldn't be long, one's a pain killer, one should help with relax your muscles and Owen tells me the bright green one should help the bruising but I don't exactly think it is FDA approved."

Ianto threw the tablets back with gusto and took a deep swig of the water.

"The green ones are brilliant." He touched the deep purple patch that had taken over half his face, "It'll be gone by tomorrow, he got them in return for a favour to some tentacled three eyed aliens that sort of broke down near Newport last year."

"Oh you mean Fravens, nice guys but they get a little carried away with the hugging thing."

"Yep, Owen wouldn't stop going on about it for weeks. It got worse when Jack told him they were all male and that they left their females on the home planet."

Jenny laughed picturing the scene, she thought she knew enough about the team to picture the scene. She stopped when she heard a knock at the door.

"That will be room service, Jack left this." She offered him a letter, "Two minutes, I'll bring it in here."

He nodded and turned the envelope over in his hands. Just like Jack to run out and leave a note, so impersonal yet as he read the words he knew Jack wouldn't have managed to say it out loud. For all he went on about 21st century repression Jack wasn't a roses and small talk person, he was more of an action man, Ianto suddenly had an image of Jack in combats and a tight t-shirt, he smiled. He looked up as Jenny brought in a trolley, white cloth, silver dome, just like the movies.

"Jack said he would bring you some clothes when he came back, something about not trusting Owen with a Weevil early doors."

Ianto waved the letter "He said." He looked hungrily at the near cornucopia of goods in front of him, he struggled to get out of the bed.

"Stay still" she said lifting a tray out from under the trolley and placing it on his lap. "Let me guess you don't like crumbs in the bed."

"No I don't like tidying up afterwards, have you ever seen Jack eating?" Jenny mimed covering her ears

"TMI Ianto"

"Once he brought me egg and soldiers for breakfast in bed, you really don't want to know where the crumbs ended up."

"You don't like other people looking after you either." Said Jenny

Ianto stuck a finger in the jam and then wrapped his tongue round it cleaning it efficiently.

"I take it you do have psychic ability." He asked, doing what he did best – avoiding the question.

"Nah just 500 years of people watching, and that is a disgusting habit by the way." She said using her knife to point at the finger in the jam for the second time.

Ianto went red and picked up a knife instead and busied himself with a few pancakes and more of the jam. He took a few mouthfuls and then cleared his throat self-consciously.

"Jack also said he wanted to take me away for a day or two, said I could pick and we would go at the end of the week." He shoved a rasher of bacon in as if he didn't trust himself not to shut up.

"Where do you fancy, Prague is beautiful at this time of year."

"He said he didn't want to be too far, just in case, well you know."

"I guess leadership has changed him, he would go missing for weeks at a time and when he didn't want to be found."

Ianto munched pensively and then made up his mind to speak again.

"Tell me about what he was like then."

Jenny looked up, he could imagine her with half glasses looking over the top to silence a thousand children as a school teacher, he looked down at his plate again.

"Hmmn" she said spiking a sausage, "Look I think you need to ask him." She paused again, "Can I be permitted to give you a little advice."

Ianto stopped eating and looked straight at Jenny, giving a slight nod.

"Torchwood in the past was a very dark place, it was never very pleasant below the surface and if you've read my file you know it only got worse." Ianto looked down, he felt like he had been caught peeping through the net curtains. "They had Jack over a barrel, they knew how to press his buttons and they exploited anyone to get what they wanted. Some of the things they left him to do in the early days." She paused as she thought of what was lurking in some of those files, she doubted Jack had ever read them if he had given Ianto access she had been forced to trawl through them to bring together all the information held on 'The Doctor'. "If he ever refused they hurt someone he knew or hunted till they found him and made him pay. I don't know if it will help you understand him."

Ianto looked up and fixed Jenny with a stare. "I don't need to understand him, I can take him on a day by day basis but I think he needs to talk to someone who won't judge him, I rather get the feeling he has been bottling it all up for rather too long."

"I see why he likes you." She said smiling and then made a sharp turn in the conversation. "Is Tintern close enough to be far away?"

"I used to go there with my family when I was younger, the drive up the valley was stunning at this time of year." He said wistfully.

"I've a little cottage I keep there, let it for holidays, the farm next door think it belongs to a religious order and they go round and clean it for me, been in the family for years."

"I think Jack would like that." Said Ianto without looking up, "I'd like that." He added quietly.

"Anytime." She said clearing away the last of the meal.

"What are you going to do now?" he said quietly

"My first job is to finish off the 50's room in the achieves, if Jack will let me back in the Hub now he knows I can override the armoury codes."

Ianto chuckled at the thought, the code wasn't at all difficult to break if you knew his birthday, "And after that?"

She just shrugged and carried on clearing up "Jack asked me to stay but I don't know, I'll think about it."

"It isn't something he does too often."

"I know." She said, "I just need to work out if it he's asking out of guilt."

"I don't think so, but I would say that, I think you'd make a great part of the team." He said looking up at her

Jenny smiled and threw one of the luxurious hotel bathrobes at his head.

"I'll take it under advisement, make yourself decent." She smiled to hide the blush that was starting to bloom and clicked the door shut.

It felt funny to wait for the cog to make its way open, as visitors in the fifties they had come in through what was now the armoury. It had been much more formal then and still had the air of Victorian primness. Various Rift flares, the cessation of the private railroad, the docks disappearing and the appearance of a cover for the Rift manipulator that had been cunningly designed to look like a fountain in the Plass, made the place feel different. Pity the alien design hadn't taken into account the prevailing wind off the Bay, it meant the fountain was off more than on so it didn't soak the passing tourists. Tosh looked up and smiled, Owen – at his desk, leant backwards because he wasn't taking his feet off the desk while he had the chance and Gwen gave a smile that would have been praised by Kan, the snake in the Jungle book.

Gwen appraised her with a PCs eyes, flash suit by the excellent cut, a little nervous by the way she looked round, hiding something by the way she held her hands in front of her and Cosmo reader in Gwen clocked the bitch was wearing another pair of bloody wonderful shoes, Choos this time. Jack had dropped her off on the way to Iantos and promised to return when he had him settled, she felt like he had promised to come and show her the inside of the tiger house after she had walked through the lions den.

"Come and have a coffee." Said Gwen in her smiley singsong, I'm not hiding an ulterior motive really, voice.

Jenny smiled, she knew exactly what was about to happen but it was a necessary thing to keep Gwen on side for the future. She sipped the cup of instant and smiled back at Gwen who she noted, had taken the seat at the head of the table.

"So, you feeling better today then?" Asked Gwen barely concealing the fact she didn't really care.

"Much thank you, tomorrow you'll never know apart from the Torchwood tattoo, seems like that is becoming permanent."

"Hmmn, good." Said Gwen making the correct noises at the wrong time. "Look Love, Jack told us he has asked you to stay but we work as a team so we all get a say." She looked pointedly over her coffee, the team weren't asking - this was personal. "Before we can work together I need to know one thing,"

Jenny held her hand up, "Before you go any further I haven't actually said I will stay."

Gwen nodded in acknowledgement but ploughed on anyway, "Well I need to know something, I need to know why you killed those people, why you didn't think we could save them, we've changed here you see we try to save the ones we can." She paused for effect, "So we don't tend to shoot humans, or even people that were once human, without trying other things."

"I guess the rows of teeth about to eat your face off weren't enough of an indicator." The voice was exasperated.

"Did you really know that you couldn't save them or did you really mean you would shoot first."

"Well apart from meeting the species before and the fact that I had a deep seated suspicion that it was either them or you?"

Gwen had the grace to look sheepish and took a sip of her own latte, made from Iantos special stash. She pouted in a way that most men found endearing but never really cut it with other women, she had no idea how she was going to get out of this with any sort of dignity intact.

"Do I pass the test?" Asked Jenny in a kind way, which was more than she really deserved. Gwen nodded and grabbed her hand, "Question is do we?"

Jenny had finally managed extricate herself from the boardroom when Jack had come back into the Hub, Gwen had bounced off like a puppy after her master not realising in the ten minutes they had sat there she hadn't had a straight answer. Taking the opportunity she had slunk away back to the archives and carried on repacking and cataloguing the artefacts disturbed by the last earthquake. In the corner she had found a distinctly in its time transistor radio under a large pile of equipment possibly from the Treng - a race of purple blue creatures, which she had turned up to find it was still playing radio stations from the sixties. She fiddled with the dial till Radio Caroline filled the room with music that sounded more like it was playing from the bottom of the ocean than a ship on top of it. More able to bend than yesterday she went to work on the pile of mainly useless earthly crud that was in the vicinity of the box that once held Iantos pen. Revelling in the freedom of being just exactly who she was, and not pretending to be, she started singing along with the music that had been playing in a much lighter age. Mainly in tune but not particularly bothered she gaily threw things into boxes and was being particularly loud during Elenor, she'd chosen that name for a time when she had come back from hiding in America after her Torchwood escape. She remembered the crush she had on Johnny Walker.

"Elenor Dear I think you're swell"

She gave a scream as a hand touched her shoulder, she turned round with the only thing she had to hand, Iantos silver pen.

"Assault with a deadly writing implement gotta add that to the list of unusual deaths."

"Jesus Jack you nearly gave me a heart attack." She said letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"And you a god fearing woman, shame on you. I also think you'll find the lyric is Gee I think you're swell. They were a good band live."

"I know, I was there too, free love, watch the Beatles on the roof, all that. Do you ever wonder where time goes when you watch all those flashback programmes and the people in the flashback are grandparents now?"

"I was going to ask you how you felt when you see them digging up graves that are younger than you on TimeTeam." He smiled as she started laughing. "Say is that Iantos pen? He's been looking for it everywhere and it would sure score me some brownie points to give it back."

She handed the fountain pen over, "Ianto thinks that the minor tear probably fixed itself when you last tried to destroy the world, either that or I think turning time back a year closed it."

Jacks head snapped up and he fixed her straight in the eye. "How do you know about that?" Only the people at the centre of the vortex were supposed to remember.

Daintily she stepped out the decreased but still noticeable pile of rift junk and turned radio off. Turning back to face him she took a deep breath, "As humans you have five senses that you use,"

Jack held up his hand, "21st century humans stop at 5, but it all changes."

"Ah your incredible sixth sense Jack I forgot. Perhaps then you will know what I mean when I say I can sense time, see when people aren't in the right place, feel when time is bent out of shape, hear when the clock is ticking backwards."

Jack nodded, it wasn't one of the things that made him different but he'd heard other extra-terrestrial life talk about similar things, even The Doctor talked about time as a living thing. She reached out and felt the air around his head. "Of course your time signature is so messed up I can't tell where the Hell you've been. There's the crackle of the TARDIS, massive and prolonged Rift travel and of course just the plain wrongness of you in the here and now."

Jack chuckled, "Someone else told me I was wrong recently." He reached out and put his hand on the side of her face, she could feel the tendrils of his talent reaching into her mind, she closed her eyes and allowed him to go where he wanted. Suddenly she felt his presence recede and his hand dropped away.

"You're very trusting." He said looking her straight in the eye, "So much in there and nothing locked away."

"Nothing to hide from." She shrugged.

Jack went round to clasp her by the shoulder and guided her out of the room, he didn't like people touching what he come to think of as his things.

"Come on time for lunch and for you to tell me you're staying here to bring us all into line."

***

Four hours of gentle brow beating later and the Team hadn't changed her mind. She hedged her answers with non-committal grunts all the time knowing exactly what she was doing. When the early morning call came she was awake and ready to leave, all she was taking to catch the early morning flight to Geneva was hand luggage. She signed the final bill at the front desk in the early morning light and was surprised when the slightly snotty night receptionist handed over a small parcel.

"Arrived in the night." She said expecting white powder to come spilling out of it.

Jenny nodded and snatched the parcel in one last gasp of her three day persona. She tapped out across the marble on her vertiginous heels and threw herself into the waiting car, it purred across the M4 to Bristol. One thing she knew about Torchwood was to at least pretend to make it less than obvious, Jack would have the image recognition programme across Cardiff airport and stop the flight if he thought it would change her mind.

As she sat in the executive lounge surrounded by early morning business men she read the papers and got bored with the stories of wannabe celebrities and corrupt politicians, suddenly she remembered the brown paper covered box she had stuffed in the top of the wheeled case. She started puling a corner neatly then within seconds she was ripping the paper way and tearing the top off the cardboard box. Inside there was a letter and something squishy, she started reading the neat script, it had to be Ianto, not curly and exacted like a man who lived through an age where writing was the only way of communicating, but neat and perfect like the man himself. It must have been written in the fountain pen she had found for him, the letter thanked her for finding the pen again and for the work she had done on the archive. As she read through she pulled out the object in the bottom of the box, one small stuffed toy cat and smiled.

_The first time you met you said you were looking for a cat, then you told us you stayed around as long as your cat did. Well I hope you will come back with Fluffy and stay around as long as she does._

It certainly gave her food for thought, for the first time in a long time she had felt as if she had come home, her normal motto was Never look back, but round Torchwood time was screwed anyway. As the lounge manager came to escort her to the flight she stroked the cat and placed it a little more carefully in the top of her bag, she wondered if Ianto had chosen the toy knowing that it was the spit of Tommy her last moggie. The flight hurtled down the runway, in the next few days she would reconnect with her past and she had the chance to become anyone but as the runway and Bristol Channel grew smaller she knew it wouldn't be long before she was back.

****************************

**Well that's all for now folks. Many thanks for those of you who stayed the course, I wasn't expecting it to turn out like this at all but the story just went the way it wanted too! I have another plot line bubbling if you want another and I think it needs to start soon before my head explodes!**

**See you again soon!!!**


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